102 EIGHTH REPORT — 1838. 



larly coming down the wind, they M'ill be struck with a sudden panic, 

 and gallop off, running one after another, and never stopping till they 

 get into their sanctuary. It is observable of them as of red deer, that 

 thej' have a peculiar faculty of taking advantage of the irregularities 

 of the ground, so that on being disturbed, they may traverse the whole 

 park, and yet you hardly get a sight of them. Their usual mode of 

 retreat is to get up slowly, set off in a walk, then a trot, and seldom 

 begin to gallop till they have put the ground between you and them 

 in the manner that I have described. In form, they are beautifully 

 shaped, short legs, straight back, horns of very fine texture, thin skin, 

 so that some of the bulls appear of a cream colour ; and they have a 

 jDeculiar cry, more like that of a wild beast than that of ordinary cattle. 

 With all the marks of high breeding, they have also some of its defects. 

 They are bad breeders, and are much subject to the rush, a complaint 

 common to animals bred in and in, which is unquestionably the case 

 with these as long as we have any account of them. When they come 

 down into the lower part of the park, which they do at stated hours, 

 they move like a regiment of cavalry in single files, the bulls leading 

 the van, as in retreat it is the bulls that bring up the rear. Lord Os- 

 sulston was witness to a curious way in which they took possession, as 

 it were, of some new pasture recently laid open to them. It was in 

 the evening about sunset. They began by lining the front of a small 

 wood, which seemed quite alive with them, when all of a sudden they 

 made a dash forward altogether in a line, and charging close by him 

 across the plain, they then spread out, and after a little time began 

 feeding. Of their tenacity of life the following is an instance. An old 

 bull being to be killed, one of the keepers had proceeded to separate 

 him from the rest of the herd, which were feeding in the outer park. 

 This the bull resenting, and having been frustrated in several attempts 

 to join them by the keeper's interposing, (the latter doing it incautious- 

 ly,) the bull made a rush at him and got him down ; he then tossed 

 him three several times, and afterwards knelt down upon him, and 

 broke several of his ribs. There being no other person present but a 

 boy, the only assistance that could be given him was, by letting loose 

 a deer-hound belonging to Lord Ossulston, which immediately attacked 

 the bull, and by biting his heels drew him off the man and eventually 

 saved his life. The bull, however, never left the keeper, but kept con- 

 tinually watching and returning to him, giving him a toss from time to 

 time. In this state of things, and while the dog with singular sagacity 

 and courage was holding the bull at bay, a messenger came up to the 

 castle, when all the gentlemen came out ^^'ith their rifles, and com- 

 menced a fire upon the bull, principally by a steady good marksman 

 from behind a fence at the distance of twenty-five yards ; but it was 

 not till six or seven balls had actually entered the head of the animal, 

 (one of them passing in at the eye,) that he at last fell. During the 

 whole time he never flinched nor changed his ground, merely shaking 

 his head as he received the several shots. Many more stories might 

 be told of hair-breadth escapes, accidents of sundry kinds, and an end- 

 less variety of peculiar habits observable in these animals, as more or 



