THE WHITE URUS. 199 



which were found on the island when the Romans 

 first visited it, and which they represent as then 

 running wild in the woods. The chase in which they 

 browse was formerly a park or forest attached to the 

 Royal castle of Cadzow, where the ancient British 

 kings of Strathclyde, and subsequently kings of Scot- 

 land, used frequently to reside and to hold their courts. 

 The oaks with which the park is studded over, are 

 evidently very ancient, and many of them are of enor- 

 mous size. Some of these are English oaks, and 

 are supposed to have been planted by King David, 

 first Earl of Huntingdon, about the year 1 140. The 

 chase is altogether of princely dimensions and ap- 

 pearance, amounting to upwards of 1300 Scotch 

 acres. The number of white cattle at present kept 

 is upwards of sixty. Great care is taken to prevent 

 the domestic bull from crossing the breed ; and if 

 accidentally a cross should take place, the young is 

 destroyed. In their general habits, they resemble 

 the fallow-deer more than any other domestic ani- 

 mal. Having been exposed, without shade or co- 

 vering of any sort, to the rigours of our climate 

 from time immemorial, they are exceedingly hardy ; 

 and having never been caught or subjected to the 

 sway of man, they are necessarily peculiarly wild 

 and untractable. Their affection for their young, 

 like that of many other animals in a wild or half- 

 wild state, is excessive. When dropt, they carefully 

 conceal them among long grass or weeds in some 

 brushwood or thicket, and approach them cautiously 



