SCOTLAND AND ITS PAST. 



Horned cattle are said to be indigenous to Scot- 

 land. From prehistoric research, Wilson^ states, on 

 evidence no doubt satisfactory, that in these early 

 times " vast herds of wild cattle of gigantic propor- 

 tions and fierce aspect roamed through the chace." 



The earliest historical notice of British cattle are 

 in the " Commentaries " of Caesar, in which he mentions 

 their abundance, and that the food of the inhabitants 

 ■was milk and flesh, to the neglect of tillage ; and 

 Strabo' praises the bountiful supply of milk, but 

 denies to them the art of making cheese. 



Darwin' states that Bos primigenius existed as a 

 wild animal at this time, and that Bos longifrons was 

 domesticated in England during the Komau period, 

 and supplied food to the Roman legionaries.* 



At this early period, the savage time, so to speak, 

 the same cattle seem to have been found more or 

 less on both sides of the border ; and in considering 

 the wild cattle of Scotland, it will be useful to re- 

 view in some measure the cattle of England, and the 

 state of the country in those days. Fitz Stephen,^ 



1 l*rehistoric Annals of Scotland. 



2 James Wilson, in Enc. Brit, xiv, 214. 



3 Animals and Plants under Domestication, N. T, 1868, i, 10-1. 



^ British I'leistocenu Mammalia. Dawkius and Sandford, p. xv. 



