CHAPTER XVI. 



THE SPANISH, OR TEXAN CATTLE. 



WE should hardly speak of this strange race of animals, were 

 it not that of late years they have found their way, to some 

 extent, into our sea-board markets. They are the descendants 

 of the early Spanish stock introduced into Mexico in the six- 

 teenth century. What they were when first imported there, we 

 have no knowledge, but presume them to be of the same race as 

 those long kept by the Moors on the plains of Andalusia, and 

 by their successors, the Castilians, for many centuries of no 

 great excellence in Spain, and not at all improved in Mexico. 



In a recent letter from Mr. A. B. Allen, of New York, 

 -(received in July, 1867,) then traveling in Spain, between Gibral- 

 tar and Granada, he thus describes the Spanish cattle of the 

 present day, as he saw them there: "I have seen numerous 

 Spanish herds. They are about the size of our old-fashioned 

 common cattle. They have large, coarse, long and wide-spread 

 horns, mostly with a half, or full twist to them, and set back, 

 rather than forward, with the points outward. Their colors are 

 black, dark brown, reddish-brown, light yellowish-red, with some 

 white on the throat and belly, and occasionally a black and white 

 roan, or dark grey. The cows are nearly as large as the oxen, 

 with the same style of horn. They do not appear to be good 

 milkers. The heads are long, and rather fine. The herdsmen 

 attend them in droves with dogs, like the short-haired Scotch 

 Colleys." 



