great value in an agricultural animal-composure of mind. The males have lost the combativeness of their species. We can hardly conceive a more ludicrous sight than a bull from Althorp, or Babworth, thrust into the arena at Seville, or Ronda. The females yield precedence without contest. If you introduce a little petulant Highland cow into a dairy of short-horns, of which every individual is double her own weight, she at once becomes mistress and leader of the herd. We have been in the habit of attending annually a sale of fat cattle where the stalls are filled with beasts of various descriptions. The short-horn is released from the stake to which he has been tied for four months, and proceeds to the hammer with all the solemnity which befits an animal who is walking to his own funeral. The West Highlander, as soon as he ascertains that he is free, rather in frolic than in fury breaks through the ring of his intending purchasers, blunders over a fence, and celebrates his recovered liberty by most extraordinary antics. The butchers get but a passing view of him. "Now, gentlemen," says the facetious auctioneer, "you must shoot him flying." His sale proceeds without the solemn pinching and punching, and the wise looks which, in the case of a more patient animal, are preliminary to a bid. Some excitement has been produced by the scene, and, if the gin-bottle has done its duty, he generally sells well. But we beg pardon.-We must not altogether pass by the important point of early maturity. Here the shorthorns claim a decided pre-eminence. We will not altogether negative the claim, though we do not find it borne out by the declared ages of the animals which are exhibited for prizes at the Smithfield show. We only desire to ask and to receive candid answers to two questions, and, in order that we may dismiss the subject, our questions shall have reference to new Leicester sheep as well as to short-horned cattle. Have, or have not, these two breeds possession of the most fertile districts which are devoted to breeding? Have they, or have they not, during their

two first years more indulgence than falls to the lot of the young of other breeds?

So many general points have entered incidentally into this review of short-horned merits, that we can be more concise respecting the old races. We will take Devons and Herefords together as having many points in common. They are confessedly prolific; neither are suited to a farmer whose rent is to be made by the produce of his dairy; we reck little of the services rendered by their bullocks in the team; human labour must be at a low ebb where it can be profitably associated with so slow a beast as an ox; bullock-teams and railways will not, we think, long co-exist. We must admit that something will be sacrificed, for we are not insensible to the superior quality of meat of mature age. The claims of these two races are founded on good constitution, on the very rare occurrence of animals without merit, on a considerable capacity to bear hardship without suffering, on symmetry sustained with less care than in any artificial breed, and on the high quality of their beef. When their symmetry does fail, it is generally in the fore quarters; where the high-priced beef lies, they seldom fail. They are unrivalled in the deep cut of lean meat well covered with fat along their whole top and sides, which butchers find so acceptable to their best customers. If compelled to give a decision between the two races we should say, with much hesitation, "If you wish to please your eye, take the Devons; if your pocket, the Herefords."

We approach the West Highlander with some fear, lest we should ramble into romance instead of adhering to plain agricultural truth. How can any man leave either his garret in Grub Street, or the tails of a set of lumbering short-horns in a Lincolnshire homestead, to visit the free and spirited denizen of Gare Loch Side, Glen Lyon, and the storm-swept Hebrides, without feeling some excitement? Unless the West Highlander has gazed on you from a rocky knoll in his native glen-unless you have

felt how much he ornaments and animates the scene, you will not admire and love him as we do. The first merits of a West Highlander are his hardihood and his great industry. Whether you order him to find his living on a black moor in summer, or to gather up the crumbs which have fallen from the rich man's table on your feeding pastures in winter, he is equally prosperous and cheerful. In storms or severe weather you never see him setting up his back and shivering under a hedge or wall; he is constantly working for his bread. We knew a grazier who always cleaned up his pastures in winter with West Highlanders, and who objected on principle to giving them any fodder, even when there were several inches of snow on the ground, saying that it only taught them idle habits. Some years back we saw annually at Falkirk a lot of West Highland bullocks bred by Mr. Stuart of Harris, and brought by him to that market. They were the best lot of one man's breeding which we ever saw; Mr. Stuart kindly gave us their history. From the day of their birth they had never been under cover; neither they nor their mothers had ever received a scrap of food from the hand of man. In the summer they roamed through the mountain glens. The Atlantic storms throw up on the west of Harris long ranges of sand-hillocks, which become fixed by the roots of a coarse grass, to which, if we remember right, Mr. Stuart gave the name of Bent. We believe it is the same grass which such of our readers as visit Paris may see extensively planted on the railway sides between Boulogne and Abbeville for the purpose of fixing the drifting sands. Mr. Stuart's herd, when driven from the hills by storms and snow, retreated to these sand-hills, and found from them all that they ever received of shelter and food. Both summer and winter they were almost independent of man. The bullocks began their southern travel by a sailing voyage of 60 miles over a very uncertain sea; they then walked about 220 miles to Falkirk, mostly over open moors, on which they bivouacked at

night, picking up a living by the wayside as they journeyed. At Falkirk they appeared healthy and lively, fresh as from their native glen, firm in their flesh, and with the bloom of high condition on their long and silky coats. Nor, indeed, were their health, strength, and condition superfluous; for, through the intervention of Mr. Carmichael, or some other eminent Scotch dealer, we believe that their general destination was the Vale of Aylesbury (another walk of nearly 400 miles, for it was before railways were in general use for cattle), where they revelled in the, to them, unwonted luxury of such pastures as are found on the farms of Mr. Senior or Mr. Rowland, and before the day twelvemonth on which they had stood on Falkirk Moor, they had probably all appeared in the shop of Mr. Giblett, or some other West-End butcher. The West Highlander is eminent for the excellence of his flesh; it is not very easy to put on, but when there, it is of first-rate quality and price. This animal does not compete in size with the short-horn or Hereford, but, in the hands of Mr. Stuart, and of the principal Perthshire and Argyleshire breeders, he seems to us to be large enough. About six years ago one bred by Mr. Campbell, of Monzie, obtained the first prize in his class at the Smithfield show, and was sold to a butcher for nearly 50l. At the same time the higher and more barren glens furnish the same animal in a smaller compass, and to a gentleman residing in his country mansion he is almost as well worth having for his beauty as for his beef. The West Highlander has one natural defect, which, however, skilful men have much remedied by judicious selection and rejection without tampering with his purity. He has it in common with the wild and with the least cultivated races of his specieswith the bison, the buffalo, both of Italy and South Africa, the bullock of Caffraria, and the mountain bull of Spain. The defect is thinness in the thighs and a general fallingoff in the hind-quarters. It is a grave agricultural failing. The West Highlander is not very docile, nor very obser

vant of artificial boundaries. His habits of free ranging are not very easily overcome.

Having carried our readers to the Highlands, we must, at the risk of being somewhat episodical, request that on their return south they will accompany us to Falkirk Moor on the second Monday or Tuesday in either September or October. They will there witness a scene to which certainly Great Britain, perhaps even the whole world, does not afford a parallel. On the Monday morning they will see the arrival on this flat and open moor, of flock after flock, to perhaps the average number of 1000 in each, of sheep-some black-faced with horns, some whitefaced and polled-the individuals of each flock being, however, remarkably uniform in size and character. They will probably observe that the flocks arrive in pairs, the first being a draft of wethers, and the second of ewes from the same farm. Each flock will be attended by two or three men, and at least as many dogs. They take up their respective stations on the moor without confusion, and stand in perfect quietude in little round clumps, which are separated from each other by only a few yards. The dogs are the main guardians, and though they are generally lying down and licking their travel-worn feet, no unruly animal who breaks the ranks escapes their vigilance, but is instantly recovered. Among the shepherds friendly recognitions are taking place; the hand and the mull are freely offered and accepted, and the news from Ben Nevis, Dunvegan, Brahan, Jura, John o' Groat's and The Lewis is communicated in a singularly soft language, strange to southern ears. We doubt whether we do not much underrate the whole number of sheep thus collected at 100,000. Mr. Paterson, Mr. Sellers, Mr. Kennedy, and Mr. Cameron of Corachoilie will each have several thousands on the ground. We have heard that this last patriarch has 50,000 head of cattle and sheep on his several farms. The greater part of the sheep are in the hands of their respective breeders, though no inconsiderable number