HIGHLAND CATTLE, 



would be apt to restore them to their primitive habits. 

 But the severity of the winter, and the scarcity of 

 provender, obhge the poor people to nurse the breed- 

 ers, and even the last year's calves, with great ten- 

 derness. In this case, affection becomes grafted on 

 interest. A poor man, who has at most only three 

 milch-cows and a couple of stirks, as they call the 

 last year's calves, that they may be kept warm and 

 well tended, keeps them under his own roof They 

 are placed in the further end of the house, divided 

 from the rest by a very shght screen of sticks and 

 clay, and often in a situation where they always are 

 within view of their owners. A few sheep and a 

 little horse excepted, these creatures are all their 

 worldly wealth, and therefore the chief objects of 

 their solicitude. Not content with almost starving 

 themselves to purchase food for them in years of 

 scarcity, they caress and talk to them, in a voice so 

 soothing, and language so endearing, and the animals 

 seem so conscious and so grateful, and become so 

 very much a part of the family, that it is affecting 

 to see the mutual kindness that subsists between 

 them. Yet it is surprising that animals so wild and 

 lively in all their motions, should be susceptible of 

 such lasting impressions, and retain so perfect a recol- 

 lection of all their friends, after six months' absence in 

 the mountains. When thus kindly spoken to, strok- 



