342 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



family by Hamilton Dalzell and Lord Elphinstone, 

 " they were subsequently restored to their ancient 

 .purity." How they went on at these two different 

 places during that interregnum no one can possibly 

 say; nor, if they had acquired any crosses, how the 

 process was performed of restoring them " to their 

 .ancient purity." They probably did get then some 

 cross, and to that their continuance to the present time 

 is very likely owing. I am of opinion that no wild 

 herd, if imprisoned in a park and interbred for several 

 hundred years without a cross, could be in existence 

 now. In this case, something more than two hundred 

 years since, it is apparent that there was every oppor- 

 tunity for such a cross taking place. It is more than 

 questionable whether such a cross has not taken place 

 much more recently. Sir J. Powlett Orde, of Kilmory 

 House, Argyllshire, says that he is told by "Mr. 

 Campbell, of Stonefield, that the late Mr. Lachlan 

 Macneill (a very well-known judge and breeder of West 

 Highland cattle, and who afterwards took the name 

 of Campbell, and the territorial title or designation 

 of Saddell, in place of Dimdrishaig), that he had been 

 employed to get a West Highland bull with which to 

 cross the wild cattle at Cadzow." Sir John Orde says 

 further that "he heard, very many years ago, that the 

 Cadzow or Hamilton cattle had all been polled, but that 

 a Highland bull having accidentally got into the park, 

 some horned calves were produced, and that by sub- 

 sequent selection the herd had got horns generally." 



The truth of these statements receives strong con- 

 firmation from the fact that it is very rare indeed, if 

 not quite exceptional, among cattle for the female to be 

 hornless while the male is not so, though it is common 



