53 
to touch him, but he instantly started back and lowered his head, 
and the men cried out, “ Take care, he’ll ‘ bunch ’ you ” ( i.e . butt). 
When the troughs were all filled we started, following the cart 
across the semicircle, but walking slowly and looking about we got 
left some ten yards behind. Our position gave us a fine view of 
the whole herd scattered along the line of troughs, and mixed with 
hundreds of fallow deer they had a fine appearance, but suddenly 
they noticed that we were separated from the cart, and at once the 
semicircle showed a formidable row of fierce uplifted horns and 
staring eyes, upon which we rejoined the cart to obviate the imme- 
diate danger of a stampede or possibly of an attack. This had the 
desired effect, and we left them quietly feeding. 
At this period of the year the cattle do not show to the greatest 
advantage, as their hair is exceedingly rough and shaggy as well as 
much discoloured by dirt, and in some few cases it is rubbed off in 
largo patches, showing the bare skin (a disfigurement ascribed by 
the keeper to parasitic insects), and I expect that they would look 
far more beautiful in the shorter glossy coat of the summer, when 
they would be in fine condition from plenty of grass. They would 
however, then be very difficult of approach. The colour, when full 
grown, is in all cases white (a remarkably dirty white at this time 
of year), but the ears are invariably red and the nose black. Some 
of the young animals, however (and notably the one already men- 
tioned as so remarkably tame), have a considerable tinge of reddish 
down the neck and shoulders, more decided, it appeared to me, 
than they could get by rubbing and rolling in the clay soil. The 
two youngest calves, however, one a few days old, and the other 
two months, were beautifully white and very pretty, not larger 
than a retriever dog. In size the full-grown animals are far inferior 
to domestic cattle, and do not even equal the black Highland kyloes, 
although in build and general appearance they approach more 
nearly to them than to any other breed with which I am 
acquainted. The bulls, however, are very heavy and powerful in 
the shoulders, and as they walk with a heavy rolling gait through the 
herd, shouldering the rest aside as they pass, have a formidable 
appearance. Such an animal is the “ Old Master,” as the men 
called him, recently the king of the herd and apparently but half 
deposed. He still mixed with the rest, and is evidently very little 
past his best days. The present king kept away at the further part 
