Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds, 795 
ing, 1812, wrote similarly about the existence of these “slugs” then, 
and is quoted by Boyd-Dawkins as evidence of the last appearances 
in this ancient breed of a reminiscence of its former character. But 
Youatt twenty years later notices them, and in 1878 Sir B. T. Gibbs 
also. The above facts are of scientific interest, showing the trans- 
formation of an ancient race from the horned to polled state. Pro- 
fessor Boyd-Dawkins has likewise favored me with the following 
notes :— 
“The only historical account of the origin of the British polied 
cattle with which I am acquainted is in the letter of the late Lord 
Selkirk to which you allude. Lord Selkirk was a man of remark- 
able ability, and one of the best of the Scotch lairds, and is not 
likely to have made any important slip. I have no doubt that his 
account of the breeding out of the horns is substantially accurate, 
so far as relates to the Galloway cattle. Moreover, on referring 
to Youatt, p. 155, I find incidental evidence that Lord Selkirk is 
right.” 
“Oral testimony,” says Mr. David McCrae, author of a history 
of Galloway cattle, “handed down to these men from the Galloway 
breeders of last century, is valuable and reliable.” So the letter 
from the late Earl of Selkirk, F.R.S., written to Prof. Boyd-Dawkins 
is of particular value. Boyd-Dawkins in introducing it says: “The 
polled or hornless cattle of the present day have undoubtedly been 
derived, through careful breeding, of the horned cattle. The Gal- 
loway breed has lost its horns principally through the care of the 
grandfather of the present Earl of Selkirk, to whom I am indebted 
for the account given in full below. Some fifty or sixty years 
were consumed in bringing this animal to its present shape ana 
form.” The letter is as follows; it is dated March 6, 1867 :— 
“T have no distinct written record about the way the horns 
of the Galloway cattle were ‘bred out,’ as we cattle-breeders say. 
The breed 150 years ago was not generally polled, i.e., without 
horns, though there was always a good many polled ones amongst 
them. Polled: ones are found in every breed. My informant was 
an old man who died about thirty years ago, he being then nearly 
ninety. He was the son of the man who tended the cows of my 
grandfather, and had been employed among cattle all his life; in 
his old age, while still able to work, he tended my cows. His 
