154 ON THE WEST HIGHLAND BREED OF CATTLE. 



stock. As the bulls and cows were never separated, the latter 

 calved at all seasons of the year, and thus it often happened that 

 great losses were sustained through the winter and spring months. 

 These losses decimated the herds in a serious degree, but as there 

 was not a very good " offgate " for young stock, little attention 

 was paid to the circumstance; occasionally, in very stormy weather, 

 a farmer might have been seen wending his way through three 

 feet of snow, with a bit of coarse hay for his famishing stock, 

 but the rule was, to let the animals cater for themselves. Of 

 course, the aged cattle withstood the rigours of a severe winter 

 better than the young ones, their coats being thicker, and as their 

 systems were thoroughly developed, they were able to withstand 

 greater privations in scarcity of food. In summer, it was, as it 

 indeed still is, quite common to see the cattle ascend the high 

 hills in fine weather, cropping the meagre herbage as they pro- 

 ceeded, but in the case of a storm they instinctively made for 

 the valleys and lower grounds. In winter, sheer necessity forced 

 them into straths and ravines, where they dragged out a miserable 

 existence upon the rough grass which they found upon the 

 meadows or in the wooded declivities that were so common at 

 that day. Sometimes a kind of disease was brought on by ex- 

 posure to cold and lack of proper nourishment, which now and 

 then carried off a few animals ; while not unfrequently scores of 

 even the strongest cattle succumbed to actual hummer when the 

 winters proved excessively severe. About a hundred years ago 

 it is said that a farmer in the district of Eannoch, in Perthshire, 

 lost over one hundred animals, all told, which no doubt might 

 have been saved by the timely arrival of a supply of rough hay 

 or oat straw. However, as prices, compared with present rates, 

 were merely nominal, and rents easy to make up, very little was 

 thought of the loss of a few animals during winter. In the 

 spring of the year, the surviving remnants which had braved the 

 elements, were as lean as wolves and as hungry as hackneys, 

 their hair standing on end like " quills upon the fretful porcu- 

 pine, " their sides almost clapped together ; the only visible im- 

 provement being in the length of the horn. Yet in April and 

 May, when the lowland grasses began to spring, their progress 

 was remarkable ; and in about three months some of the better- 

 class varieties were quite plump and fleshy, and, owing to the 

 beef being all newly laid on, it was remarkable for its tenderness, 

 juiciness, and general fine flavour. In course of time, farmers 

 began to see the necessity of providing shelter for the cattle 

 during the storms of winter. When a hurricane was seen to be 

 approaching — and it may here be noticed en23assanti\xQ.t a High- 

 laud farmer is generally pretty well skilled in weather prognostics 

 — the cattle were driven into an enclosure under the shelter of a 

 hill or wood, and there a scanty pittance of hay or straw meted 



