182 THE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



" black cattle." The Baron told a friend that he was going to 

 Falkirk trjst with his cattle. " What ! " said his friend, '^ you 

 go to Falkirk to sell cattle, without a word of English in your 

 head P " " Never mind," said the Baron, in his native tongue ; 

 " I have no English, it is true ; but my cattle will speak for 

 themselves and me too." 



The English trade in Highland cattle has, from various 

 causes, such as diminished supply and preference for other 

 breeds, for a time very much declined ; but great numbers of 

 the better class of cattle are still bought for English pastures, 

 where they thrive and fatten to a great weight — bullocks to 

 14 or 15 stones per quarter. 



The largest folds of Highland cattle are in the Long Island 

 — in Harris, Uist, and Barra — and in the Isle of Skye ; but in 

 all the islands of the west coast of Scotland this is the breed 

 almost exclusively reared, and in no other part of the country 

 are its leading characteristics more fully developed. The nature 

 of the pasturage, the moist climate, and the comparatively mild 

 winters consequent on vicinity to the sea produce hair and horn 

 such as the inland pastures of the mainland cannot, except 

 under very favourable conditions, rival ; but, on the other hand, 

 the inland pastures produce much heavier cattle than the island 

 or seaboard pastures ever do. Perhaps one of the finest large 

 herds ever seen in the west was that which belonged to Messrs. 

 Donald and Archibald Stewart, Perthshire men, in the island of 

 Harris, fifty or sixty years ago. By judicious selection from 

 the best folds of the day in the counties of Inverness, Argyll, 

 and Perth, they brought the breed to notable perfection, and 

 showed what could be done by careful breeding ; and their 

 three-year-old bullocks, of large size, with hair like goats and 

 horns like buffaloes, used to attract great attention in the 

 districts through which they were annually driven to Falkirk 

 tryst. The herd of Mr. John Stewart, of Ensay, now worthily 

 maintains, at Highland Society shows and elsewhere, the 

 reputation of the old Laskintyre fold in Harris, and of what 

 was the well-known Duntulm herd in Skye. Mr. Alexander 

 Macdonald, of Edenwood, Fife, has at Balranald, in Uist, one 

 of the largest folds of pure Highlanders in Scotland, numbering 

 over a hundred breeding cows with their followers. This fold is- 



