CATTLE IN SCOTLAND 63 



at Scone in Perthshire, specifically mentions "black homyl," 

 in modern Scots "humle" or "humlie," that is to say, horn- 

 less cattle. Yet the creation of a polled race under man's 

 influence seems to one familiar with the slowness of nature's 

 processes, a thing of marvellous celerity; for even in the 

 middle of the eighteenth century, a large proportion of pure- 

 bred Galloway cattle had horns of considerable length, and 

 the complete disappearance of horns since that time is simply 

 due to the efforts of breeders to meet the demands of English 



Fig. 14. Aberdeen-Angus bull a highly developed result of domestication. 

 ("Metaphor," Champion, Highland Show, 1910.) 



graziers, who, compelled to drive their purchased herds a 

 considerable distance across the borders, found that horns 

 merely contributed to accident and damage, and accordingly, 

 when possible, selected hornless individuals. 



Other characteristics, less apparent than the external 

 -features just described, have suffered change under domestica- 

 tion, for man's influence-extends even to traits of character 

 and to the deeper physiological activities. How can we com- 

 pare the untameable ferocity of the Urus of Julius Caesar's 

 day with the docility of the large modern breeds, or the 



