500 BOVIDE. 
domestic ox; whence we may infer that it resembled the 
ox in the close nature of its hairy covering, which would 
make the shaggy coat and the mane of the Aurochs more 
remarkable by comparison. 
It is much to be regretted, for the interests of Zoology, 
that the great Hereynian Uri have been less favoured 
than their contemporary Bisontes jubati in the progress of 
human civilization, and that no individuals now remain for 
study and comparison, like the Aurochs of Lithuania. 
My esteemed friend Professor Bell, who has written the 
History of existing British Quadrupeds, is disposed to 
believe, with Cuvier and most other naturalists, that 
our domestic cattle are the degenerate descendants of the 
great Urus.* But it seems to me more probable that the 
herds of the newly conquered regions would be derived 
from the already domesticated cattle of the Roman co- 
lonists, of those ‘‘ boves nostri,” for example, by comparison 
with which Cesar endeavoured to convey to his country- 
men an idea of the stupendous and formidable Uri of the 
Hercynian forests. 
The taming of such a species would be a much more 
difficult and less certain mode of supplying the exigencies 
of the agriculturist, than the importation of the breeds of 
oxen already domesticated and in use by the founders of 
the new colonies. And, that the latter was the chief, if 
not sole, source of the herds of England, when its soil 
began to be cultivated under the Roman sway, is strongly 
indicated by the analogy of modern colonies. The domes- 
tic cattle, for example, of the Anglo-Americans have not 
been derived from tamed descendants of the original wild 
* “ T cannot but consider it extremely probable that these fossil remains be- 
longed to the original wild condition of our domestic Ox.’”—Bell’s British Quad- 
rupeds, p» 414. 
