THE NORSE CONTINGENT 53 



and it is not likely they were known outside 

 their own territory a hundred years earlier. Early 

 in the eighteenth century there sprang up in 

 England a demand for hornless cattle which was 

 responded to first in Galloway, and considerably 

 later in the north-eastern counties. The 

 result was that breeders elected to breed from 

 hornless cattle ; and hornlessness, which had 

 hitherto been practically confined to the country 

 near the coast, moved farther and farther inland. 

 By Youatt's time (1834) the horned and the 

 hornless cattle were almost numerically equal in 

 the interior of the north-eastern counties, while 

 the hornless ones were still in the majority 

 on the coast. A quarter of a century later the 

 horns had been almost entirely removed from the 

 inland black cattle. 



Unfortunately, we have no contemporary 

 description of the original east-coast hornless 

 cattle ; but, from Youatt's and other notes on 

 the colours of Forfarshire and Aberdeenshire 

 cattle, and from a description of Aberdeenshire 

 cattle, as they appeared about 1830, written 

 by an Aberdeenshire farmer for Messrs. Mac- 

 donald and Sinclair, their characters can be 

 inferred. 



It must be remembered that, after the middle 

 of the eighteenth century, many large southern 

 cattle were introduced to the north-eastern 

 counties. At first, these were chiefly Fifeshire 



