142 THE OX TRIBE. 



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: those I have seen are at Chillingham 

 Castle, in Northumberland, a seat belonging to the Earl 

 of Tankerville." 



The statement of their being untameable is a mere 

 assertion, founded upon no evidence whatever. But so 

 far is it from being the fact, that, notwithstanding every 

 means are used to preserve their wildness, such as allow- 

 ing them to range in an extensive park seldom intruding 

 upon them hunting and shooting them now and then 

 notwithstanding these means are taken to preserve their 

 wildness, they are even now so far domesticated as volun- 

 tarily to present themselves every winter, at a place pre- 

 pared for them, for the purpose of being fed. From 

 which it may reasonably be concluded, that were they re- 

 stricted in their pasture, gradually familiarised with the 

 presence of human beings, and in every other respect 

 treated as ordinary cattle, they would, in the course of 

 two or three generations, be equally tame and tractable. 



Whilst writing the foregoing I was not aware that any 

 attempt had been made to domesticate these so-called 

 untameable oxen ; but on reading an account of these 

 cattle by Mr. Hindmarsh, of Newcastle- upon-Tyne, (bear- 

 ing date about 1837,) I find the following paragraph. 



" By taking the calves at a very early age, and treating 

 them gently, the present keeper succeeded in domesticating 

 an ox and a cow. They became as tame as domestic animals, 

 and the ox fed as rapidly as a shorthorned steer. He lived 

 eighteen years, and when at his best was computed at 

 8 cwt. 14 Ibs. The cow only lived five or six years. She 



