there was found in Scotland a wild race of cattle, which were of a pure white colour, and had (if we may credit Boethius) manes like lions. I cannot but give credit to the rela tion; having feen in the woods of Drumlanrig in North Britain, and in the park belong PROSE evident proofs of the plenty of cattle in his days; for after his winter provifions may have been fuppofed to have been moftly confumed, there were found, fo late as the month of May, in falt, the carcafes of not fewer than 80 beeves, 600 bacons, and 600 muttons. The accounts of the feveral great feafts in after-ing to Chillingham caftle in Northumberland, times, afford amazing inftances of the quantity of cattle that were confumed in them. This was owing partly to the continued attachment of the people to grazing; partly to the preference that the English at all times gave to animal food. The quantity of cattle that appear from the lateft calculation to have been confumed in our metropolis, is a fufficient argument of the vaft plenty of thefe times; particularly when we confider the great advancement of tillage, and the numberless variety of provifions, unknown to paft ages; that are now introduced into thefe kingdoms from all parts of the world. Our breed of horned cattle has in general been fo much improved by a foreign mixture, that it is difficult to point out the original kind of these islands. Those which may be fuppofed to have been purely British, are far inferior in fize to thofe on the northern part of the European continent: the cattle of the Highlands of Scotland are exceeding fmall, and many of them, males as well as females, are hornlefs the Welsh runts are much larger the black cattle of Cornwall are of the fame fize with the laft. The large fpecies that is now cultivated through most parts of Great Britain are either entirely of foreign extraction, or our own improved by a crofs with the foreign kind. The Lincolnfhire kind derive their fize from the Holftein breed; and the large hornLefs cattle that are bred in fome parts of EngJand come originally from Poland. About two hundred and fifty years ago herds of cattle probably derived from the favage breed. They have loft their manes; but retain their colour and fiercenefs: they were of a middle fize; long legged; and had black muzzles, and ears: their horns fine, and with a bold and elegant bend. The keeper of thofe at Chillingham said, that the weight of the ox was 38 ftones: of the cow 28 that their hides were more efteemed by the tanners than thofe of the tame; and they would give fix-pence per ftone more for them. Thefe cattle were wild as any deer, on being approached would instantly take to flight and gallop away at full speed: never mix with the tame fpecies; nor come near the house unless conftrained by hunger in very fevere weather. When it is neecffary to kill any, they are always fhot: if the keeper only wounds the beaft, he must take care to keep behind fome tree, or his life would be in danger from the furious attacks of the animal; which will never defift till a period is put to his life. Frequent mention is made of our favage cattle by hiftorians. One relates that Robert Bruce was (in chafing thefe animals) preferved from the rage of a wild bull by the intrepidity of one of his courtiers, from which he and his lineage acquired the name of Tumbull. Fitz-Stephen names thefe animals (Uri-Sylveftres) among those that harboured in the great forcft that in his time lay adjacent to London. Another enumerates, among the provifions at the great feast of Nevil archbishop of York, fix wild bulls; and Sibbald affores affures us, that in his days a wild and white fpecies was found in the mountains of Scotland, but agreeing in form with the common fort. I believe thefe to have been the Bifontes jubati of Pliny, found then in Germany, and might have been common to the continent and our island: the lofs of their favage vigour by confinement might occafion fome change in the external appearance, as is frequent with wild animals deprived of liberty; and to that we may afcribe their lofs of mane. The Urus of the Hercynian foreft, defcribed by Cæfar, book VI. was of this kind, the fame which is called by the modern Germans, Aurochs, i. e.. Bas fylveftris. The ox is the only horned animal in these inlands that will apply his ftrength to the fervice of mankind. It is now generally allowed, that in many cafes oxen are more profitable in the draught than horfes; their food, harnefs, and fhoes being cheaper, and thould they be lamed or grow old, an old working beaft will be as good meat, and fatten as well Veffels of this kind are ftill in ufe on the Irish lakes; and on the Dee and Severn: in Ireland they are called Curach, in England Curacles, from the British Cwrwg, a word fignifying a boat of that structure. curried, ferves for boots, fhoes, and numberAt prefent, the hide, when tanned and lefs other conveniences of life. beaters fkin is made of a thin vellum, or Vellum is made of calves skin, and goldmixed with lime is a neceffary article in a.finer part of the ox's guts. The hair building. Of the horns are made combs, boxes, handles for knives, and drinking veffels; and when foftened by water, obeying the manufacturer's hand, they are formed into Their is fcarce any part of this animal with- Thefe laft conveniences we owe to our great pellucid laminæ for the fides of lanthorns. out its ufe. The blood, fat, marrow, hide, king Alfred, who firft invented them to prehair, horns, hoofs, milk, cream, butter, ferve his candle time-measurers from the cheese, whey, urine, liver, gall, fpleen, wind; or (as other writers will have it) the bones, and dung, have each their particu-tapers that were fet up before the reliques lar ufe in manufactures, commerce, and in the miferable tattered churches of that medicine. time. as a young one. The skin has been of great ufe in all ages. The ancient Britons, before they knew a bet-alexipharmics or antidotes against poison, the In medicine, the horns were employed as ter method, built their boats with ofiers, and covered them with the hides of bulls, whichnied with the title of English bezoar; and plague, or the fmall pox; they have been digferved for fhort coafting voyages. Primum cana falix madefacto vimine parvam are faid to have been found to answer the end of the oriental kind; the chips of the hoofs, and paring of the raw hides, ferve to make carpenters glue. The bones are used by mechanics, where Jivory is too expenfive; by which the common people people are ferved with many neat conveniences at an eafy rate. From the tibia and carpus bones is procured an oil much used by coach-makers and others in dreffing and deaning harnefs, and all trappings belonging to a coach; and the bones calcined afford a fit matter for tests for the use of the refiner in the freting trade. The blood is used as an excellent manure for fruit-trees; and is the bafis of that fine colour, the Pruffian blue. The fat, tallow, and fuet, furnish us with light; and are alfo urfed to precipitate the falt that is drawn from briny fprings. The gall Ever, fpleen, and urine, have alfo their place in the materia medica. The ufcs of butter, checfe, cream, and milk, in domeftic economy; and the excellence of the latter, in furnishing a palatable nutriment for most people, whofe organs of digeftion are weakened, are too obvious to be inlifted on. § 3. The SHEEP. Reverend Mr Pegge was fo kind as to inform me that he has feen on the coins of Cunobelin that of a fheep. Since that is the cafe, it is probable that our ancestors were poffeffed of the animal, but made no farther use of it than to ftrip off the skin and wrap themfelves in it, and with the wool inmost obtain a comfortable protection against the cold. of the winter feafon. This neglect of manufacture may be cafily accounted for, in an uncivilized nation whole wants were few, and thofe cafily fatisfied; but what is more furprifing, when after a long period we had cultivated a breed of fheep, whofe fleeces were fuperior to thofe of, other countries, we ftill neglected to promote a woollen manufacture at home. That valuable branch of bufinefs lay for a confiderable time in foreign hands; and we were obliged to import the cloth manufactured from our own materials. There feems indeed to have been many unavailing efforts made by our monarchs to preferve both the wool and the manufacture of it among ourselves: Henry the Second, by a patent granted to the weavers in London, directed that if any cloth was found made of a mixture of Spanish wool, it fhould be burnt by the mayor: yet fo little did the weaving bufiefs advance, that Edward the Third was obliged to permit the importation of foreign cloth in the begin ning of his reign; but foon after, by encouraging foreign artificers to fettle in England, and inftruct the natives in their trade, the ma mufacture increased fo greatly as to enable It does not appear from any of the early writers, that the breed of this animal was cultivated for the fake of the wool among the Britons; the inhabitants of the inland parts of this inland either went entirely naked, or were only clothed with fkins. Those who lived on the fea-coafts, and were the most civilized, affected the manners of the Gauls, and wore like them a fort of garments made of coarfe wool, called Bracha. Thefe they probably had from Gaul, there not being the leaft traces of manufactures among the Bri-him to prohibit the wear of foreign cloth. tons, in the hiftories of thofe times. On the coins or money of the Britons are feen impreffed the figures of the horfe, the bull, and the hog, the marks of the tributes exacted from them by the conquerors. The Yet, to fhew the uncommercial genius of the people, the effects of this prohibition were checked by another law, as prejudicial to trade as the other was falutary; this was an act of the fame reign, against exporting wool len cloths manufactured at home, under heavy penalties; while the exportation of wool was not only allowed but encouraged. This overfight was not fo foon rectified, for it appears that, on the alliance that Edward the Fourth made with the king of Arragon, he prefented the latter with fome ewes and ramis of the Cotefwold kind, which is a proof of their excellency, fince they were thought acceptable to a monarch, whofe dominions were fo noted for the fineness of their fleeces. In the first year of Richard the Third, and in the two fucceeding reigns, our woollen manufactures received fome improvements; but the grand rife of all its profperity is to be dated from the reign of queen Elizabeth, when the tyranny of the duke of Alva in the Netherlands drove numbers of artificers for refuge into this country, who were the founders of that immenfe manufacture we carry on at prefent. We have strong inducements to be more particular on the modern state of our woollen manufactures; but we defift, from a fear of digreffing too far; our en quiries must be limited to points that have a more immediate reference to the study of Zoology. guincas for a ram, and a guinea for the admiffion of a ewe to one of the valuable males; or twenty guincas for the use of it for a certain number of ewes during one feafor, Suffolk alfo breeds a very valuable kind. The fleeces of the northern parts of this kingdom are inferior in fineness to those of the south; but ftill are of great value in different branches of our manufactures. The Yorkshire hills furnish the looms of that county with large quantities of wool; and that which is taken from the neek and fhoulders is used (mixed with Spanish wool) in fome of their finest cloths. Wales yields but a coarfe wool; yet it is of more extenfive ufe than the finest Segovian fleeces; for rich and poor, age and youth, health and infirmities, all confefs the uuiverfal benefit of the flannel manufacture. The sheep in Ireland vary like thofe of Great Britain. Thofe of the fouth and caft being large and their flesh rank. Thofe of the north, and the mountainous parts, finall, and their flesh fweet. The fleeces in the fame manner differ in degrees of value. Scotland breeds a small kind, and their No country is better fupplied with mate- fleeces are coarfe. Sibbald (after Boethius) rials, and thofe adapted to every fpecies of fpeaks of a breed in the ifle of Rona, covered the clothing bufinefs, than Great Britain; with blue wool; of another kind in the ifle of and though the sheep of thefe islands afford Hirta, larger than the biggest he-goat, with fleeces of different degrees of goodnefs, yet tails hanging almost to the ground, and horns there are not any but what may be used in as thick, and longer than thofe of an ox. He fome branch of it. Herefordshire, Devon-mentions another kind, which is clothed with " thire, and Cotefwold downs are noted for producing Theep with remarkable fine ficeces; the Lincolnshire and Warwickshire kind,which are very large, exceed any for the quantity and goodness of their wool. The former county yields the largest sheep in these islands, where it is no uncommon thing to give fifty a mixture of wool and hair; and a fourth fpecies, whofe fleth and fleeces are yellow, and their teeth of the colour of gold; but the truth of thefe relations ought to be enquired into, as no other writer has mentioned them, except the credulous Boethius. Yet the laft particular is not to be rejected: for notwith Standing standing I cannot inftance the teeth of fheep, it will make fome thew of defence, by ftammyyet I faw in the fummer of 1772, at Athol-ing with its feet, and pufhing with its head houfe, the jaws of an ox, with teeth thickly it is a gregarious animal, is fond of any incrufted with a gold-coloured pyrites; and jingling noife, for which reafon the leader of the fame might have happened to thofe of the flock has in many places a bell hung fheep had they fed in the fame grounds, round its neck, which the others will conwhich were in the valley beneath the house. ftantly follow: it is fubject to many difeafes: Befides the ficece, there is fearce any part fome arife from infects which depofit their of this animal but what is ufeful to mankind. eggs in different parts of the animal; others The fleth is a delicate and wholefome food. are caufed by their being kept in wet paftures; The skin dreffed, forms different parts of our for as the fheep requires but little drink, it is apparel; and is ufed for covers of books. naturally fond of a dry foil. The dropfy, The entrails, properly prepared and twifted, vertigo (the pendro of the Welsh), the phthiferve for ftrings for various mufical inftru-fic, jaundice, and worms in the liver, annually ments. The bones calcined (like other bones make great havock among our flocks: for in general) form materials for tefts for the the firft difcafe the fhepherd finds a remedy by refiner. The milk is thicker than that of turning the infected into fields of broom; cows, and confequently yields a greater quan-which plant has been alfo found to be very tity of butter and cheefe; and in fome places efficacious in the fame diforder among the huis fo rich, that it will not produce the cheefe man fpecies. without a mixture of water to make it part The fheep is alfo infefted by different forts from the whey. The dung is a remarkably of infects: like the horse it has its pecurich manure; infomuch that the folding of liar oeftrus or gladly, which depofits its eggs theep is become too useful a branch of huf- above the nofe in the frontal finuses; when bandry for the farmer to neglect. To con- thofe turn into maggots they become exceffive clude, whether we think the advantages painful, and caufe thofe violent agitations that refult from this animal to individuals that we fo often fece the animal in. The in particular, or to thefe kingdoms in general, French fhepherds make a common practice of we may with Columella confider this in one eafing the theep, by trepanning and taking fenfe, as the first of the domeftic animals. out the maggot; this practice is fometimes ufed Poft majores quadrupedes ovilli pecoris fecunda by the English thepherds, but not always ratio eft; que prima fit fi ad utilitatis mag-with the fame fuccefs: befides thefe infects, nitudinem referas. Nam id præcipue contra frigoris violentiam protegit, corporibufque noftris liberaliora præbet velamina; et etiam elegantium menfus jucundis et numerofis dapibus exornat. the fheep is troubled with a kind of tick and loute, which magpics and ftarlings contribute to cafe it of, by lighting on its back, and picking the infects off. § 4. The Dog.. The theep, as to its nature, is a most innocent, mild, and fimple animal; and, confcious Dr. Caius, an English phyfician, who flovof its own defenceless ftate, remarkably tirishing in the reign of queen Elizabeth, has mid: if attacked when attended by its-lamb, left, among feveral other tracts relating to na tural |