THE NORSE CONTINGENT 65 



their military followers, who, when they had 

 ousted the English landlords, put themselves in 

 their stead, and therefore had no need to bring 

 over cattle from their Norman lands. Besides, 

 the hornless cattle were found chiefly in parts 

 of Scotland and Ireland where the Normans 

 did not penetrate. We are therefore driven to 

 the conclusion that the importers of the hornless 

 cattle were the Norsemen. But, if further proof 

 were required, there are still the facts that cattle 

 of the same race were taken to other Norse 

 settlements, and that others still remain in 

 Norway. These cattle may be identified, not 

 only by their hornlessness but also by their 

 colour, size, and shape. In most places, some 

 of their original characters have been lost by 

 crossing with other cattle. But if, in likely 

 places, we find cattle bearing some of the original 

 Norse characters, the presumption that they are 

 of Norse descent is clear : more especially as 

 some of the original characters were peculiar to 

 the Norse cattle only. Thus the cattle of the 

 Channel Islands can be identified as of the same 

 race by the presence of light dun called silver 

 grey and so on and yellow ; by their shapes ; 

 and also by the quality of their milk. There 

 are still dun-coloured cattle in Orkney and 

 Shetland, and fifty years ago there were many 

 more, especially in Shetland. Low was absolutely 

 clear that they were of Scandinavian origin, after 



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