28 EARLY HISTORY OF ABERDEEN OR ANGUS CATTLE. 



it to have originated, and there it has been brought out 

 as one of the most handsome and most valuable of living 

 varieties of cattle. 



It would seem that in the ancient horned domestic 

 cattle of Scotland there had been a tendency to those 

 " spontaneous variations " that result in the loss of horns. 

 We have seen that throughout the country numerous 

 hornless varieties have appeared from time to time, most 

 of them in such localities and under such circumstances 

 as preclude the idea of their all having sprung from one 

 offshoot, and force the conclusion that each represented 

 a fresh departure or distinct "sudden organic change." 

 We have learned from Johnson and Pennant that about 

 a century * ago there were hornless cattle in the Isle of 

 Skye and in the county of Sutherland. Of these all 

 traces have been lost. Youatt has told us that about 

 the middle of the eighteenth century there were " some " 

 polled cattle in the old district of Galloway. These, it 

 has been seen, have developed into an important and 

 well-established breed bearing the name of its native 

 district. A mass of evidence has made us aware that, 

 late in the last century and early in the present, polled 

 cattle were pretty well diffused over certain parts of the 

 north-east corner of Scotland. From these have come in 

 direct descent the famous breed whose history and char- 

 acteristics we have set ourselves to trace. 



As to the precise date or period at which those sudden 

 organic changes which have given us the Aberdeen or 

 Angus polled breed may have occurred, we are left with- 

 out any ray of light. It has been lost in the mists which 

 envelop the darkened agricultural era ending with the 

 last century. From negative evidence we conclude that 

 the loss of horns must have occurred more than a hundred 

 years ago. Beyond that the subject rests mainly on con- 

 jecture. 



A careful investigation of all known works and circuin- 



