162 



Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



cattle, and that this is proved by the finding of hornless skulls in Scania, and 

 by the occurrence of a hornless, whity-grey " Risinge-race " in Ostergotland 

 [East Grothlaud] in the eighteeutli century. This breed has a lengthened 

 hornless head and short crook-hocked legs. It is now white, with small black 



The following description and illustration of a cow of the Fjall race are 

 taken from Sundbixrg's "Sweden: its Population and its Industries," published 

 in 1904 : — " The history of cattle in our country presents a good many 



Swedish Fjall Cow. 



vicissitudes. The Law of XJppland, a.d. 1296, describes Swedish cattle a& 

 being small, hornless, white or whitish-grey, often with dark spots. The 

 Alpine breed in Northern Sweden is so still — a race we have every reason to 

 consider as being the oldest in the country. But at an early day there came 

 into the country — probably from tlie east — a larger honied race of cattle, 

 reddish-yellow in colour, which towards the north more and more invaded 

 the districts of the older race. This race has by degrees been crossed with 

 and in many places replaced by purely foreign breeds ; but it long survived 

 typically in the forest districts of Smaland, and it is still found in the Island 

 of Gothland." 



In collecting data for this paper, several authors were found wlio, more or 

 less tentatively, suggested a racial connexion between the hornless cattle of 

 Britain and those of the Continent. Middendorfl maintains that the hornless 

 cattle of the ancient Scythians, referred to by Herodotus, migrated north- 

 wards with their owners through Russia to Finland, from thence to 



