120 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



county of Inverness — in length sixty miles, in greatest 

 breadth twenty. Here was the ancient Castle of Inver- 

 lochy — in the time of Edward I. occupied by the 

 Cummings, previously by the Thanes of Lochaber, and 

 among others by the noted Banquo, and still earlier, it 

 is said, by the kings of the Scots. In ancient times, 

 and even till within the eighteenth century, the valley 

 was covered with wood.* 



Farther south still remains "The Black Wood of 

 Eannoch" — of fir — another old relic of the great Cale- 

 donian Wood. But it is useless to multiply examples ; 

 the wild nature of the country is well known, and the 

 immense range of its forests is matter of history. 

 Besides deer and more ordinary game, we know that 

 they contained in early times the bear; that even so 

 lately as 1578f they were full of numerous and most 

 ferocious wolves ; and that in comparatively recent times 

 the capercailzie,! which requires extensive pine forests 

 like those of Norway for its subsistence, was also 

 common. Here too, undoubtedly, during the Middle 

 Ages, abounded Scotland's noblest game, the white wild 

 bull. Whatever may have been the case in Southern 

 England, here unquestionably he roamed at large and 

 flourished till comparatively recent times. Possibly 

 this was his aboriginal home, and he may perhaps by 

 degrees, when troublous times favoured his migrations, 



* The report of the parish of Laggan (" Statistical Account of 

 Scotland ") was made by the Rev. Mr. James Grant, parish minister. 

 vol. iii., pp. 145 — 152 ; that of Kilmonivaig by Rev. Mr. Thomas Ross, 

 minister, vol. xvii., pp. 543 — 550. 



f Bishop Leslie's " De Origine, Moribus, et Rebus gestis Scotorum," 

 published in that year. 



X The capercailzie, having become extinct in Scotland, was successfully 

 re-introduced from Norway by the late Marquis of Breadalbane, and 

 naturalised in the woods which surround Taymouth Castle. 



