Morning journal and courier., 1883-08-16


 white as the sunlight strikes on them.gra zfng on the slope of the distant hill, and rec ognizable through field glass as cattle:
 Descending into the valley, and losing sight for time of the herd, we are taken through yard, with large open shed, to l which the wild cattle come to be fed in win l ter-an elaborate arrangement of gates and fenced passage for capturing any animal l which it is desired to separate from the herd, l and another shed, with a strongly enclosed | yard, such as the zebras and quaggas live ln | at the Geological Gardens, but which at the | time of our visit last autumn was tenanted | by two of the wild COWS On leaving these buildings we enter the territory appropriated to the herd, which it is necessary to approach 1 with something of deer-stalkers caution, | not so much on its own account as on that of the herd of fallow-deer grazing near. The | deer are quick to take alarm, and their flight would be at once followed by that of the | cattle. After crossing little stream or two and climbing slope, we at last gam the shelter of bank about quarter of mile of the herd. Through glass 1t is easy to distinguish the bulls by their massive shoul- ders, which are darkened to roan color by the animals habit of rubbing themselves in the soil, and to make out the cows and their snowy-white calyes-some forty visible, not counting the calves. Sixty-four is the full number of the herd but some are hidden from view by cIump of wood The chef thing which strikes distant observer is the way in which they keep together, like a horde of barbarians on the march Some, indeed, are lying down. but close to their grazing and slowly-moving companions, and there seem to be no straRglers Watching them thus, one is disposed to fancy that they must have been wild from all time. At least, | the wild nature must be strangely strong in \ animals which, though every winter they | come down for food to the shed, grow little or no tanner, and which never learn any dis . tinCtI0r nf keeper \ says, Is as safe or as unsafe among them, ac- cording to their mood, as he himself would ! be. In eighteen years, however, he adds, he | never has had an accident with them and,
 setting aside occasional outbreaks of feroci ty on the part of the bulls, the chief danger 1 would seem to be that of coming suddenly ! upon COW with her calf lying in the fern ! Under similar circumstances even the COW of
 civilized life is apt to be awkward
 The two COWS in the enclosure or "hemer | already mentioned seemed shy rather than I wild showing no anger at their yard being l entered by strangers, but holding themselves ! aloof in corner. Their peculiar beauty is not easily described it lies in their air of
 bsrbaric nobility, high-bred, yet perfectly | uncivilized There is nothing about them of
 the albinoism and tendency to pinky-eyed- ! neEs that beset white tame animals these
 COWS are creamy white, with delicately
 shaped heads, black muzzle. reddish-brown
 ears, long and rather upright horns tipped
 with black, fringe of hair falling over the l brow, and with exquisite dark deer like eyes
 set in ring of black hair. The back is
 straight, the body strong and solid, and low on the legs, so that the animal looks small j;
 the tail is set on with fine upward spring
 like that of bull in classical sculpture. It \ would seem that time and selection, or per- ! haps more care and better feeling, have mod
 flied the breed, for Bewick's woodcut of the | Chllingham COW struck showing 8
 slighter and more antelope-like animal; and
 Peunant describes the cattle he saw at Chil-
 lingham in 1772 as ''long-leg'd" At the time
 we were there good opportunity for study
 and comparison was afforded by the presence
 in another set of outbuildings of three young | bulls-one shorthorn, one half bred Chn-
 lineham and shorthorn, and one with only a | quarter of wild blood. The half breed, a l magnificent animal with the characteristic
 dark eye of the Chillingham, is said to be
 hardly distinguishable, except in being big
 ger, from the pure breed, and to be little, if l at all, less wild and dangerous. The quarter bred, on the other hand, has not the dark eye, and is reported to be quite tractable.
 Conjecture and controversy have gathered round these wild white cattle as thickly as l I round any of the mysterious human tribes, ! Gaelic or Iverr ian, into whose origins MT
 Elton and Professor Rhys inquire May we
 believe, as one would like to believe, that they have preserved their freedom from pre- historic times, and have never bowed their | l necks in the service of man? Are they un- conquered, like the Montenegrins and the @k Gms thiHall Men of .Ksnt2 Or must. we &C., cept the less romantic theory that their more
 immediate ancestors came over as domestlca- 1 ted cattle in the keels of Hengest or of Ida, , and that the Chillingham and other so called
 wiIl breeds only relapsed descendants of
 the herds of our Teutonic forefathers One
 thing, at least, seems to be admitted with re-
 gard to the Chillingham, that no other exist ing breed of cattle shows so near ap-
 proach, albeit on much diminished scale, to the characteristics of the gigantic fossil Bos primigenius, represented within historic
 times by Csesar's Urus, whose horns the Ger
 man hunters set in silver for drinking yes | sells and displayed as their proudest trophies.