8G AMERICAN CATTLE. 



all, and when we find those already fitted to our hands, and 

 applicable to the best economical uses for all the different parts 

 of our broad country, it is the part of wisdom to adopt them, 

 instead of striving, by a long course of unprofitable experiment, 

 to change and acclimate those by nature unfitted to new locali- 

 ties. Let us take advantage of the labors of others, and apply 

 them immediately to our uses and demands. 



Thus Youatt: "Scotland contains several distinct and valua- 

 ble breeds of cattle, evidently belonging to our present division — 

 'the middle-horns.' The West Highlanders, whether we regard 

 those that are found in the Hebrides, or the county of Argyle, 

 seem to retain most of the aboriginal character. They have 

 remained unchanged, or improved only by selection, for many 

 generations, or indeed from the earliest accounts that we possess 

 of Scottish cattle." 



It is well to remark, as a matter of geographical information, 

 that the western coast of Scotland, north of Ireland, is skirted 

 for a distance of two hundred miles by a cluster of islands greater 

 or smaller in extent ; and further west and north of these extends 

 another cluster called the Hebrides, or "Western Islands, all 

 thickly inhabited with a population more or less agricultural in 

 their pursuits, and having with them the aboriginal race of cattle 

 mentioned by Youatt. Beyond these, and on the extreme north 

 of Scotland proper, range another group of islands, called the 

 Orkneys, and to the extreme north of them, another, called the 

 Shetland Islands, famous for a hardy people, and producing a 

 diminutive race of tough, rugged Httle cattle, and also those 

 wild looking, diminutive horses called "Shelties,"' or Shetland 

 ponies, of late introduced among us. These several groups range 

 from 55}4° to 61° north latitude; and although their climates 

 be not so severe as in corresponding American latitudes, they are 

 harsh, austere and boisterous. 



