298 



THE OX. 



totally destitute of the noble forests which, in the latter 

 country, afford shelter from the icy blasts of winter, while 

 the tillage of the country is every way inferior. 



Norway is a country of independent proprietors, main- 

 tained, by their laws of equal succession, in a happy medio- 

 crity of condition, cultivating their paternal fields, and reap- 

 ing the direct reward of their individual industry. In the 

 Islands of Zetland, the cultivators of the soil are mostly 

 miserable tenants, who labour for others, and have neither 

 the means nor the will to call forth the resources of their 

 country. Hence it is, that, while the rude industry of the 

 Norwegians suffices to supply their domestic animals with 

 such food as the country affords, the cattle of the Zetland 

 Islands are left almost in a state of nature, without sufficient 

 sustenance in winter, and with scarce any other shelter than 

 the desolate rocks of the country supply. Thus they remain 

 without that development of form which sufficient food and 

 careful treatment never fail to produce. Like the Sheep of 

 the same country, they eat the fuci and other algse of the 

 coasts, and wait the ebbing of the tide, that they may pro- 

 cure this species of food. 



The cattle of Zetland have necessarily become much mixed 

 with those of Orkney, and the latter again with those of 

 Caithness and the Northern Highlands. These mixed races 

 are rarely equal to those of pure descent. The crossing, too, 

 has never been pursued on fixed principles, and hence the mo- 

 dern cattle of Zetland are far inferior to what they might 

 have been rendered by cultivating with care the parent stock. 

 But, above all things, the starving of the animals while young, 

 has contributed to render them puny and degenerate, as com- 

 pared with the ancient Scandinavian stock. It is pleasing, 

 however, to record, that the seeds of improvement are scat- 

 tered in these islands, and that the attention of intelligent 

 gentlemen is now directed to the improvement of the country, 

 aided by the increased intercourse which steam navigation 

 has opened up with the markets of the south. This latter 



