NEW 
“ TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND MIND.” 
SERIES. 
Vol. V. 
ALBANY, JULY, 1848. 
No. 7. 
Xffis cmiililimikHAM wild catt&e. 
The history of British Cattle is a subject of interest 
to us, from the fact that they constitute the source from 
which our own stock of the same species has been chief¬ 
ly derived. In investigating this history, we find that 
at the time of the invasion and conquest of Britain by 
the Romans, under Julius Caesar, fifty years before the 
Christian era, the ancient people of that country posses¬ 
sed great numbers of these animals. Besides the large 
herds which were kept more or less in a state of domes¬ 
tication, and afforded support to the inhabitants by 
their milk and flesh, many roamed unrestrained in the 
extensive forests. 
The origin of these cattle has been a subject of much 
speculation. Whether the wild stock was really indi¬ 
genous to the country, existing there before it was peo¬ 
pled by the human race—whether the tame stock was 
derived from the wild—or whether the latter originally 
sprung from a domestic race brought into the island by 
some of the early inhabitants, of whose origin and mi¬ 
gration we have no account, are questions which can¬ 
not be positively answered. At the earliest period to 
which the history of Britain reaches, it is certain that 
men and cattle were found there, and we have good rea¬ 
son to believe, that the lineal descendants of both exist 
at the present day. 
Three distinct tribes or stocks of cattle appear to 
have existed in the British Islands, from the earliest 
times: viz. 1, the Long-Horns, which originally occu¬ 
pied the low flat lands of England, and similar parts of 
Ireland, and were remarkable for the enormous length 
of their horns, their bulky frames and thick hides; 2, 
the Middle-Horns represented by the cattle of Devon¬ 
shire, Herefordshire, Wales, and the Scottish Highlands 
of which the wild stock of Chillingham Park, Nor¬ 
thumberland, are considered the type, and 3, the Poll¬ 
ed or hornless cattle, the originals of which are proba¬ 
bly represented by the wild stock of Chatelherault Park, 
Lanarkshire, Scotland. 
As we before remarked, there has been considerable 
discussion in regard to the origin of these wild stocks,and 
the relation which they sustain to the present domestic 
British bi ee Is; but we are acquainted with no author who 
appears to have investigated the subject so deeply, and 
who has written upon it so elaborately as W. C. L. 
Martin, in his Treatise on the Ox, which forms the 
first part of a work now in course of publication, enti¬ 
tled “Knight's Farmers' Library, and Cyclopedia of Ru¬ 
ral Affairs.” 
Mr. Martin first gives a very interesting description 
of the various extinct species of ox, the bones of which 
