SOURCE OF ABERDEEN OR ANGUS CATTLE. 27 



and close affinity. Those marked distinctions which they 

 have come to display are, with the exception of that 

 striking peculiarity, the want of horns (which shall pres- 

 ently be dealt with), exactly such as might be cal- 

 culated to arise from the variations in their respective 

 conditions of life, more particularly from the divergencies 

 in the mode of treatment to which their owners have 

 subjected them for many generations, nay, even for cen- 

 turies. The truth of this statement will receive verifica- 

 tion when, in dealing with the characteristics of the polled 

 Aberdeen or Angus breed, we come to compare the sleeky 

 polls which have been reared on the highly cultivated 

 arable farms of the cold, dry north-east, with the more 

 shaggy hornless cattle which have been produced on the 

 soft natural pastures of Galloway, where the rainfall is 

 much greater, and the cold less intense. Then a glance 

 at the distinctions between the small "skranky" native 

 horned cattle of the bleak, stormy, northern heights, and 

 the massive, handsome Highlanders that occupy the lower, 

 softer, greener, and better sheltered regions of the west, 

 supplies equally forcible testimony of a similar kind. 



In the foregoing digression we have indicated very 

 briefly the grounds upon which we assign to all varieties 

 of true Scotch domestic cattle (some years ago grouped 

 into three distinct breeds) one common origin in the 

 aboriginal wild horned cattle of ancient Caledonia. We 

 have now to trace the source and early history of the 

 Aberdeen or Angus polled breed. It follows from what 

 has been stated that we regard this beautiful race as a 

 direct branch of the aboriginal horned cattle of Scotland 

 thrown off by those sudden, " proper," " spontaneous," or 

 " accidental " " organic changes " referred to in the preced- 

 ing chapter. We go further, and say that the breed is 

 indigenous to the very districts which still form its head- 

 quarters, the north-eastern counties of Scotland, with 

 Forfar and Aberdeen as chief centres. There we believe 



