TAIN TO INVERNESS. 91 



the length of the tail, which in the old Scotch is 

 seven inches. Add three inches, and they would be 

 Welsh ; deduct three, and they would be Shetland/' 

 They are handsome and small, much tamer than the 

 black-face, and nearly as good mutton, with fine bone 

 and good wool, which will average 3i Ibs. on a four- 

 year-old wedder. Until that age they are hardly 

 ripe for the knife, and cut up to about 13 Ibs. a 

 quarter. 



An Angus bull, with some bronze, dun, and black 

 calves, suggests a study worthy of Gourlay Steell ; but 

 the " heavy black" is only a foretaste of what we are 

 to find at Lochdhu and Kildrummie, which are re- 

 spectively owned and rented by Mr. Anderson. He 

 farms 1,200 acres in the counties of Nairnshire and 

 Morayshire, and lets half his turnips in the former 

 for sheep. Mr. Anderson keeps three small stocks 

 of pure-bred cattle, poll, shorthorn, and West High- 

 land, and his tariff for the bull-calves of each breed 

 varies from 10 to 25, 20 to 30, and 12 to 

 20. He breeds very few West Highlands, and 

 crosses some of the cows with his shorthorn bull. 

 This capital cross is very seldom taken the reverse 

 way, and if a second cross of shorthorn does more for 

 the milk, it does not help the beef. " Hieland hum- 

 lies/ 5 or the cross between the poll and the West 

 Highland, are still found in the higher districts of 

 Morayshire and Bamffshire, and some few on the 

 heights of Aberdeenshire. Their sires and dams 

 have generally been inferior to begin with, and then 



