VARIOUS HYPOTHESES. 185 



wild. They may have been once domesticated, and 

 have again become feral, as in the above-named cases. 

 I fully admit that this hypothesis cannot be disproved 

 by . direct testimony, though I think that history and 

 the circumstances of the country present an immense 

 amount of cumulative evidence in the opposite direc- 

 tion. Neither do I consider the solution of this question 

 of much importance, so far as regards the cattle them- 

 selves. They have been proved, on the high authority 

 of Eiitimeyer, to be legitimate descendants of the Bos 

 urus ; and it appears to me to matter little whether they 

 have been continuously wild, or whether, once tamed, 

 they again became feral several centuries ago. 



I am aware that some persons have supposed that 

 the Chillingham wild bull and his Caledonian ancestor 

 also may both have descended from the small Celtic Bos 

 longifrons. Riitimeyer's anatomical investigations have, 

 I imagine, disposed of that opinion. And besides, the 

 smaller size of the supposed ancestor seems to render this 

 hypothesis untenable. Professor Nilsson asserts that in 

 every case domestic races of cattle are smaller than their 

 supposed wild ancestor ; but whether this is so or not, 

 one thing seems certain: that continuous inter-breeding, 

 carried on for many generations, causes invariably, 

 among other effects, decrease in size. Leicester sheep, 

 bred for many years from the same flock alone, become, 

 in time, much smaller than their ancestors, or than 

 their congeners not similarly treated ; and all experience 

 would lead us to believe, what anatomy confirms, that 

 the ancient progenitor of the closely in-and-in bred 

 Chillinghams must have been a larger, and not a 

 smaller, animal than themselves. 



It has also been argued that the Chillingham cattle 



