208 THE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



of Mon is therefore the isle of cows. However correct this 

 derivation may be, Anglesea has certainly ever been conspicuous 

 as a cattle-breeding island. 



The productiveness of Anglesea in cattle has always been 

 great for such a limited area. Roberts's Map of Commerce, 

 published in 1649, gave 3000 as the number of cattle annually 

 exported and swum across the Straits of Menai. The losses by 

 this mode of transit were few ; cattle are good swimmers. This 

 fashion of swimming beasts has been known elsewhere along 

 our coasts in equally difficult places. The Rev. Walter Davies, 

 in his " G-eneral View of the Agriciilture and Economy of North 

 Wales," says that Mr. Lewis Morris, in his " Book of Charts," 

 in 1747, puts the number of animals exported in his time as 

 15,000, although this must be an evidently exaggerated account. 

 Mr. Davis, in 1810, gives the average export as " not above 

 8000, from one to four years old." Youatt, writing after the 

 erection of Menai Bridge, considers he does not exaggerate when 

 he estimates the annual export at 10,000 head, of an aggregate 

 value of 50,000Z. 



The black cattle of Anglesea are nearly allied in character 

 and race to those of Soutb Wales. Mr. Darwin definitely pro- 

 nounces the Pembrokes as descendants of Bos primigenius, but 

 thinks, with Professor Richard Owen, that the blacks of North 

 Wales have their origin in Bos longifrons. I am not tempted 

 to discuss here the osteological distinctions on which he bases 

 his inferences. History and the geographical situation of black 

 cattle on the western and northern coast of Britain seem to 

 favour the idea of one common origin, and that they are the 

 oldest breeds in the country. They are found at intervals in a 

 line from St. David's Head in Pembrokeshire to as far north as 

 Iceland. 



The Anglesea, or North Wales black cattle as they are 

 now generally known — for they are found in Carnarvon, Den- 

 bigh, Merioneth, and other counties of North Wales — are very 

 like the Pembrokes. The coat, as with the Castlemartins, 

 should be long and wavy. This generally denotes good quality, 

 and a growing beast easily fattened. In colour they are gene- 

 rally darker than those of South Wales, being a pure black. 

 A little more white is allowed than in the Pembrokes, the 



