THE WEST HIGHLANDERS. 



ruption of the Gaelic word which signifies highland, and is pronounced 

 as if spelled Kael. 



The Highland bull, or kyloe, should be black, or pale red, the head 

 small, tlie eais thin, the muzzle fine, and rather turned up. He 

 should be broad in the face, the eyes prominent, and the countenance 

 calm and placid. The horns should taper finely to a point; and, 

 neither drooping too much, nor rising too high, should be of a waxy- 

 color, and widely set on at the root. The neck should be fine, par- 

 ticularly where it joins the head, and rising with a gentle curve from 

 the shoulder. The breast wide, and projecting well before the legs. 

 The shoulders broad at the top, and the chine so full as to leave but 

 little hollow behind them. The girth behind the shoulder deep ; 

 the back straight, wide, and flat ; the ribs broad, the space between 

 them and the hips small ; the belly not sinking low in the middle ; 

 yet, on the whole, not forming a round and barrel-like carcass. The 

 thigh tapering to tlie hock -joint ; the bones larger in proportion to 

 the size than in the breeds of the southern districts. The tail set on 

 a level with the back. The legs short and straight. The whole car- 

 cass covered with a thick, long coat of hair, and plenty of hair also 

 about the face and horns, and that hair not curly. 



The value of the West Highland cattle consists in their being 

 hardy, and easily fed ; in that they will live, and sometimes thrive, 

 on the coarsest pastures ; that they will frequently gain from a fourth 

 to a third of their oi iginal weight in six months' good feeding ; that 

 the proportion of oftal is not greater than in the most improved 

 larger breeds ; that they will lay their flesh and fat equably on the 

 best parts ; and that, when fat, the beef is close and fine in the 

 grain, highly flavored, and so well mixed or marbled, that it com- 

 mands a superior price in every market. 



Forty years ago, the treatment of cattle was, with very few excep- 

 tions, absurd and ruinous, to a strange degree, through the whole of 

 the Hebrides. With the exception of the milch cows, but not even 

 of the calves, they were all wintered in the field : if they were scantily 

 fed with hay, it was coarse, and withered, and half-rotten ; or if they 

 got a little straw, they were thought to be well taken care of. The 

 majority got httle more than sea-weed, heather, and nishes. One- 

 fifth of the cattle, on an average, used to perish every winter from 

 starvation. When the cold had been unusually severe, and the snow 

 had lain long on the ground, one-half of the stock has been lost, and 

 the remainder have afterward been thinned by the diseases which 

 poverty had engendered. 



It proved the excellency of the breed, that, in the course of two 

 or three months, so many of them got again into good store-condi- 

 tion, and might almost be said to be half-fat, and could scarcely be 

 restrained by any fence : in fact, there are numerous instances of 

 these cattle, which had been reduced to the most dreadful state of 



