degrees of difference, over the greater part of England. In the northern counties, and especially in the north of Scotland, a smaller race, with sharp and almost erect ears, greatly resembling the wild boar in form, long existed, and is yet extant. These animals were dusky or brownish-black, wild in their habits, and very hardy. We say were, but in fact such is still the race in the Orkneys and Hebrides. They are small, rough, semi-wild beasts, depending principally upon their own means of gaining a subsistence, and are evidently the descendants of a wild stock. Their degeneracy in size may be attributed to climate and deficiency of nutrition while young; for when brought into more southern districts, and fed in the ordinary way, they rapidly acquire an increase in size, fatten kindly, and return excellent meat.
These mountain hogs are in tolerable condition after their summer fare, and should be killed in autumn. During the long rigorous winter these animals must suffer extremely, and in some islands many probably perish.
This breed, which not a century since was common in the Highlands, where vast herds were kept for the sake of sale in the Lowlands, is less thoroughly reclaimed than were the old gaunt flap-eared breeds of England. The latter had undergone a certain degree of modification long before the improvements effected in modern days. Among these old breeds was one described by Mr. George Culley; it prevailed in Yorkshire and Lancashire; the animals were of large size, and white, with huge ears hanging over their eyes. "They were very plain, thin, awkward hogs, with very long legs; but what distinguished them most was two wattles or dugs, not unlike the teats of a cow's udder, which hung down from their throats, one on each side." This breed appears to be altogether extinct in our island.
It is not often that we now hear of hogs of enormous size being slaughtered; formerly such overgrown monsters were not uncommon. The old Berkshire breed, which in its improved state still belongs to the class of large swine, not unfrequently produced huge specimens. The surprising weight that some of these hogs have been fed to, would be altogether incredible, if we had it not so well attested. Mr. Young, in one of his Tours, gives an account of a hog in Berkshire which was fed to 1130 lbs.; but a still more extraordinary pig was, some years since, killed in Cheshire:—"On Monday, the 24th of January, 1774, a pig (fed by Mr. Joseph Lawton, of Cheshire) was killed, which measured from the end of the nose to the end of the tail, 3 yards 8 inches, and in height 4 feet 512 inches; it weighed 12 cwt. 2 qrs. and 10 lbs. when alive (1410 lbs.); when killed and dressed, it weighed 10 cwt. 3 qrs. and 11 lbs. avoirdupois (1215 lbs ) This pig was killed by James Washington, butcher in Congleton, in Cheshire."—Calley, on Live Stock.
In the month of December, 1846, a large hog was slaughtered at
