52 The English Wild Bull. 



The British Wild White Cattle have been the 

 cause of endless long and learned arguments, the 

 point in dispute being whether they are an 

 aboriginal race, direct descendants of Bos primi- 

 genius, or merely the outcome of domestic cattle 

 which have become feral. As is not unusual, both 

 parties give excellent reasons for the faith that 

 is in them ; but the exigencies of space alone are 

 sufficient to prevent us giving even a faint outline 

 of the arguments adduced on one side or the 

 other. Suffice it to say that, in our opinion, the 

 weight of evidence is in favour of what we may 

 call the aboriginal theory, though possibly the 

 writer who remarked that, "whether they were 

 derived from abroad, or were descended from wild 

 individuals of the urus race, native to Britain in 

 former ages, are questions which the lapse of time 

 will never solve, but rather tend to shroud in 

 deeper darkness," took the wisest view of the 

 situation. One fact, at all events, is undisputed 

 namely, that, whether aboriginal or not, they are 

 an extremely ancient race. Numberless quotations 

 from early writers could be given in support of 

 this. Perhaps the best known, though by no 

 means the earliest, of these is that of Hector 

 Boece, or Boethius, who, writing in 1526, alleged 

 that there were then to be found in Scotland, 

 in the Caledonian Forest, which at that time 

 extended from Stirling through Monteith and 

 Strathearn to Athol and Lochaber, wild cattle of 

 a pure white colour with manes like lions, or, as 



