James Wilson

“ The problem of tracing the ancestry of the whole was thus narrowed down to tracing that of a very few, and not only from their very picturesqueness, and the fact that they had never been tamed, but also because they had been referred to more than once in early writings, the wild white cattle afforded the most attractive clue. ”

“ What we are asked to believe is that our wild white cattle, and some at least of our domestic breeds trace back direct to this ancient giant, Bos primigenius. Sentiment and vanity tempt us to accept the belief, although we admit, in doing so, that our forefathers have left us a sadly degenerate legacy. ”

“ Writers who have speculated upon the ancestry of British cattle have been struck by the phenomenon that, while the vast majority have been domesticated for many centuries, there still exists in England and Scotland a small number of herds which, though they have been enclosed in parks and thus far partially tamed, have never yet, to all appearance, been brought under the yoke. ”

“ The ancestors of the British wild cattle were therefore mighty and untameable monsters of unconquerable ferocity, and none could be found more likely than the Uri of the Hercynian forest in Western Germany. ”

“ Even were the geological record less clear, it would still be difficult to prove that Bos primigenius was the ancestor of our modern cattle. The skeletal inconsistencies are too great. Leaving other considerations aside, and taking Fleming's measurements, which are the smallest, it is inconceivable that an animal whose skull was 27 inches long by 11 inches broad should be the ancestor of, say, the modern Shorthorn, an animal not much younger in time, whose skull is 23 or 24 inches long by 11 or 12 broad: that is, that the ratio of length to breadth should change from to . ”

“ On notice being given that a wild bull would be killed on a certain day, the inhabitants of the neighbourhood came mounted and armed with guns, etc., sometimes to the amount of an hundred horse, and four or five hundred foot, who stood upon walls or got into trees, while the horsemen rode off the bull from the rest of the herd till he stood at bay, when a marksman dismounted and shot. ”

“ The wild breed, from being untameable, can only be kept within walls or good fences; consequently very few of them are now to be met with, except in the parks of some gentlemen, who keep them for ornament, and as a curiosity ”

“ It has also been maintained by those who hold that the wild white cattle at least are descended from Bos primigenius, that they have deteriorated in size through confinement and consequent in-breeding. ”

“ Great is their strength and great their speed; nor, having espied them, do they spare either men or beasts. They are sedulously captured in pits and slain: the young men hardening themselves by such toil and training themselves by this kind of sport: and they who have killed most Uri, proclaimed as such by the horns being exhibited in public, receive great commendation. ”

“ When the cows calve, they hide their calves for a week or ten days in some sequestered situation, and go and suckle them two or three times a day. If any persons come near the calves, they clap their heads close to the ground and lie like an hare in form, to hide themselves ”

“ This they do several times, shortening their distance, and advancing nearer and nearer, till they come within such a short distance, that most people think it prudent to leave them, not chusing to provoke them further. ”