28 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



suppose, too, that in the severer cHmates they were aflforded 

 somewhat of shelter, and more pains-taking in food and treat- 

 ment, than in the milder latitudes where they had long ranged, 

 and with such increased care, improved in quality and appear- 

 ance. They took, possibly, somewhat different shapes, and con- 

 formed, more or less, to the uses to which they were subjected. 

 The Moors of Spain reared great herds of neat cattle, and from 

 them descended the dominant races of Spanish herds. They 

 were there the progenitors of the savage and headstrong bulls 

 still sacrificed in the arena of bull-fights and picadores. The 

 Gauls of France, bred the gentler and more economical forms of 

 cattle adapted to a better husbandry. 



By what gradual, peculiar, or natural prd^esses these Euro- 

 pean cattle acquired their present distinctive characteristics, we 

 have no definite information. History is either altogether silent 

 or obscure on these subjects, and we have no better guide than 

 conjecture to inform us. Throughout Western Europe numerous 

 difierent breeds exist, of diverse qualities, all more or less use- 

 ful for the purposes to which they are applied, and profitable to* 

 the people who breed and rear them. Italy, France, Spain, 

 Germany. Switzerland, Holland, and other Northern countries, 

 each have their peculiar national breeds, while England, Scot- 

 land and Ireland have many varieties widely divergent in char- 

 acter and appearance. Indeed, it is not necessary, unless for 

 speculation or curiosity, that we know the particulars of their 

 history or progress, inasmuch as we, in America, are already in 

 possession of the best breeds of Western Europe, fuEy answer- 

 ing our own immediate purposes, and have successfully natural- 

 ized them on our soils. 



