CATTLE AND SHEEP. 15 



night, picking up a living by the wayside as they jour 

 neyed. At Falkirk they appeared healthy and lively, 

 fresh as from their native glen, firm in their flesh, and 

 with the bloom of high condition on their long and silky 

 coats. Nor, indeed, were their health, strength, arid con- 

 dition superfluous ; for, through the intervention of Mr. 

 Carmichael, or some other eminent Scotch dealer, we be- 

 lieve that their general destination was the Vale of Ayles- 

 bury (another walk of nearly 400 miles, for it was before 

 railways were in general use for cattle), where they re- 

 velled in the, to them, unwonted luxury of such pastures 

 as are found on the farms of Mr. Senior or Mr. Rowland, 

 and before the day twelvemonth on which they had stood 

 on Falkirk Moor, they had probably all appeared in the 

 shop of Mr. Giblett, or some other West-end butcher. The 

 West Highlander is eminent for the excellence of his 

 flesh ; it is not very easy to put on, but when there, it is 

 of first-rate quality and price. This animal does not com- 

 pete in size with the short-horn or Hereford, but, in the 

 hands of Mr. Stuart, and of the principal Perthshire and 

 Argyleshire breeders, he seems to us to be large enough. 

 About six years ago one bred by Mr. Campbell, of Monzie, 

 obtained the first prize in his class at the Smithfield show, 

 and was sold to a butcher for nearly 50. At the same 

 time the higher and more barren glens furnish the same 

 animal in a smaller compass, and to a gentleman residing 

 in his country mansion he is almost as well worth having 

 for his beauty as for his beef. The West Highlander has 

 one natural defect, which, however, skilful men have much 

 remedied by judicious selection and rejection without tam- 

 pering with his purity. He has it in common with the 

 wild and with the least cultivated races of his species 

 with the bison, the buffalo, both of Italy and South Africa, 

 the bullock of Caffraria, and the mountain bull of Spain. 

 The defect is thinness in the thighs and a general falling- 

 off in the hind-quarters. It is a grave agricultural failing. 

 The West Highlander is not very docile, nor very obser- 



