34 THE BUFFALO. 



and will sometimes turn with great fury upon any assailant. The 

 tail of the grunting ox is much esteemed in Tibet, and sold at a 

 high price as an ornament, being of a beautiful white colour, 

 long, and very bushy. When mounted on a silver handle, it is 

 used by persons of distinction in India, for the purpose of chasing 

 away the flies. It is also sometimes fixed to the ear of the ele- 

 phant, by way of ornament. When dyed red, and the hair formed 

 into tufts, it is used by the Chinese to adorn their bonnets. 



THE BUFFALO 



Is another species of horned animal, which, by its appearance, 

 seems to be of the cow kind, and in its form bears the most 

 striking general resemblance to the common ox. Its habits and 

 propensities are also similar, with respect to its aptitude for do- 

 mestic uses, as both are equally submissive to the yoke ; yet no 

 two species of animals can be in reality more distinct ; and they 

 have the most singular antipathy against each other, which ap- 

 pears the more extraordinary, as nothing of the kind is observed 

 between the common cow and the bison, although they resemble 

 each other much less in form. 



The buffalo is not so beautiful an animal as our common ox, 

 his figure being more clumsy, his body thicker and shorter, and 

 his legs, in proportion, longer ; his head, which he carries nearer 

 the ground, is smaller than that of the cow ; his horns are not 

 so round, nor is his body so thickly covered with hair. The flesh 

 of the buffalo is described by some as hard and unpalatable, and 

 exhaling a disagreeable smell. Sparman, on the contrary, says, 

 that the flesh is coarse, and rather lean, but full of juice, of a 

 high but not unpleasant flavour. In regard to this, much may 

 depend on the caprice of taste, as well as on the difference of 

 climate and feeding ; for experience proves, that these circum- 

 stances have a very powerful influence on all animals, especially 

 those of the horned kind, both with respect to their size and 

 shape, the nature of their flesh, and the quality of their other 

 productions. The innumerable shades of difference, produced 

 in the same species of animals by the influence of soil and cli- 

 mate, and other adventitious circumstances, are every where ob- 

 servable, and admit of an endless' variety : it is, therefore, no 

 wonder, that naturalists, as well as travellers, should differ in the 

 description of minute particulars. All, however, agree, that the 

 buffalo brings forth no more than one calf at a time, and that 

 its period of gestation is twelve months, which evidently proves 

 it to be a distinct species from the cow. 



A very singular circumstance, relative to these animals, is re- 

 corded by those who completed the last voyage of Captain Cook 

 to the Pacific Ocean. When at Pulo Condore, they procured 



