CHAPTER XXIX 



THE WEST HIGHLAND 



The native home of West Highland cattle is in the elevated 

 uplands of western Scotland. This particularly applies to that 

 section known as the Highlands in Argyll, Inverness, and Perth 

 counties, and the Hebrides Islands off the west coast. 



The origin of the West Highland breed, which has also been 

 called the " Kyloe " by some, is generally conceded to be derived 

 from the aboriginal cattle of Britain, of which the present wild 

 white cattle are descendants. This breed has been known for 

 centuries, but has-been kept on a comparatively small scale. Joe 

 Cameron gives an interesting contribution l relative to the reputa- 

 tion of this as a very old breed. He states : 



Colin Campbell of Jura has a record of a sale of Highland cattle held by an 

 ancestor, Archibald Campbell, in 1 764. When the sale was held no one knew 

 how long the breed had been in the possession of the family ; the tradition 

 was that the foundation animal had been taken from the mainland. The late 

 Alexander MacDonald of Babranald, in a letter to the writer many years ago, 

 said that his ten predecessors on the Babranald estate kept the native cattle, 

 and the tradition was handed down that his forefathers, who had occupied 

 Babranald or its neighborhood since the fourteenth century, had always bred 

 Highland cattle. 



During the first half of the last century two of the herds that 

 improved the breed were those of Mr. Malcolm of Poltalloch in 

 Argyll and the Marquis of Breadalbane of Perth. 



The introduction of the West Highland cattle to America is of 

 only passing moment. In 1879 Lewis F. Allen, one of the best- 

 informed cattle authorities in America in the nineteenth century, 

 stated that he knew of none in the United States, but was of 

 the impression that a few were imported into Upper Canada 

 some years before. About 1883 some West Highlanders were 

 imported, among which was the cow Maid of Castle Grant, that 



1 Breeders'' Gazette, September 24, 1913. 

 31 T 



