429 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
their passage to Antwerp, has resolved to land them at Ostend; the 
writers have therefore taken up a ship for the purpose, and contracted for 
freight, provisions, and fitting of partitions for each beast apart. They 
are to be received at Tower Wharf on Wednesday next, and the whole 
charge is £50. [One page. Nicholas endorses the letter as relating to the 
transport of ‘the wild cows.’ ”’] 
The second entry is under the date 1632, February 18, and is 
to the following effect :— 
‘*Minutes by Nicholas of business to be transacted by the Lords of the 
Admiralty. The business of the Saltpetremen; Captains’ names to be 
presented to the King [delivered to Sec. Coke]; letter of Officers of Navy 
respecting the transport of wild cows.” 
What were these “ wild cows ?”—were they of the white breed ? 
This, of course, is both possible and probable. We have heard of 
“wild cows” in different lands. For example, Leslie, in De 
Origine, Moribus, et Rebus Scotorum (1678), says that herds 
of Vaccw frequented the mountainous districts of Argyle and 
Ross (Appendix IIT.). But the wild cattle that in this instance 
were exported to Belgium may have been simply what would now 
be termed ranche cattle. From the Calendar of State Papers, 
(Domestic Series), time of Charles II., we learn that cattle ranged 
freely, and were branded. Under date August 12th, 1671, 
Gulielmus [Fuller], Bishop of Lincoln, writes—‘“ In my visitation 
of Leicestershire I met with such an odd kind of disturbance 
among the people that it startled me very much. A strong report 
ran like wildfire all over that county, and others adjacent, that all 
cattle of whatsoever kind which were not branded the King would 
seize upon.” . . . “It is reported (how true I know not) that 
the Duchess of Newcastle was very severe in punishing those of 
the forest in Nottinghamshire, taking away all the cattle that 
were not branded, as legally they ought to be.” 
Under date August 20, 1671, Sir William Hartopp, in a letter 
about the alarm in Lincolnshire, writes—“ Many thousands of 
cattle were marked, and it came about (according to the best 
intelligence) from some forest lands, where it was a custom to 
mark their cattle.” 
Forest lands may have been common grazing ground, and cattle 
would therefore require to be branded so as to be distinguished. 
The modern ranche is our equivalent for the seventeenth-century 

