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WHITE CATTLE: AN INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 225 
found. By the time of the Roman invasion a certain extent of 
clearing must have been effected by the natives, who mustered in 
considerable numbers, sometimes fighting in chariots, and who 
possessed horses and herds of cattle, for which pasture land was 
necessary. The Romans effected further clearances, largely of a 
destructive character; but their historians, who furnish us with 
the earliest written contributions towards our history, give but 
little definite information as to the forests of Scotland, although 
incidental mention of woods is not wanting, such as occur in 
passages in Tacitus’s “ Life of Agricola.” They distinguish a 
particular portion of the country as “Sylva Caledonia ” 
(Pliny iv. 30) or “Caledonias Silva” (Ptolemy), the Caledonian 
Forest, probably because it was the densest woodland they knew 
in Scotland. This seems to have extended on the south from 
about the heads of Loch Long and Loch Lomond by the line of 
the Forth to Stirling, stretching northwards of this line as far as 
Dunkeld. Mr. Watt pointed out that modern, and particularly 
recent, writers have extended the limits of this great wood, until 
by their license it is said to have covered the whole of the 
Scottish mainland south of Sutherland. This he held to be 
unhistorical and misleading, however fine it might be from a 
sentimental point of view. For instance, in his opinion, to say, 
as is frequently done, that the fine old oaks at Cadzow originally 
were part of the Caledonian Forest is an error, as Cadzow is 
outwith the bounds of the original forest; and the loose way of 
speaking of many old pieces of woodland as “remains of the 
ancient Caledonian Forest” is just as inaccurate. “ Sylva 
Caledonia” seems to have been only a definite district, and the 
names of the woods which occurred elsewhere in these early times 
have not come down to us. 
It is also stated that the skulls of the white cattle show that 
they are degenerate descendants of the Bos primigenius found in 
Pleistocene deposits. There seems to be only one solitary 
authority for this statement, namely, Professor Riitimeyer, of Basle, 
1 «Tn most cases in which forest was used with reference to these cattle, it 
meant little more than the fel/ does to a Cumberland farmer, 7.e., the open 
ground beyond the fields, where sheep and beasts roam about, at any rate 
during Summer.” Professor T. M‘Kenny Hughes, in lit., 26th November, 
1898, 
