THE AYRSHIRE BREED. 339 



under the penalty of 200 livres, with forfeiture of the boat 

 and tackle, and a further penalty of fifty livres is imposed on 

 any sailor on board who does not inform of the attempt. The 

 animal itself is to be immediately slaughtered, and its flesh 

 given to the poor. 



The breeds of the several islands are essentially the same, 

 although that of Guernsey deviates from the common type, 

 and presents a greater affinity with the races of Normandy, 

 the individuals having more spreading horns, the size being 

 larger, the form rounder, and the bones less prominent, than 

 in the cattle of the other islands. The true Alderney has 

 a great resemblance to certain breeds of Norway, which 

 leads to the conclusion, that, in the intercourse with the 

 North which followed the subjugation of Normandy and its 

 dependencies, Scandinavian cattle were introduced into the 

 Islands of the Channel. 



XIII. THE AYRSHIRE BREED. 



Of the cattle of these Islands, reared especially for the 

 uses of the Dairy, those of but a few districts present such 

 an affinity in conformation and habits as to be regarded as 

 constituting breeds or families. But the cattle of Ayrshire, 

 which are reared exclusively for the supply of milk, have 

 spead over a large tract of country, and, by continued inter- 

 mixture with one another, have acquired such a community 

 of characters, as to form a distinct and well-defined breed. 



The county of Ayr, stretching along the estuary of the 

 Clyde, and the Irish Sea, for about eighty miles, consists 

 in part of moory hills, in part of an undulating surface of 

 common clay, intersected by narrow vales, and in part of a 

 flat tract nearer the coast, bounded towards the sea by a 

 belt of barren sand. The climate is moist, but not intem- 

 perate, although the country, like that of all the western 

 shores of Scotland, is too much exposed to the continued winds 



