OF THE OX. 13 



plies with food great numbers of sheep and 

 cattle. These spacious tracts, known as moor- 

 lands or steppes, particularly abound in Eussia, 

 on the banks of the Wolga, the Don, the 

 Dnieper; in Hungary, on the banks of the 

 Danube ; and also in South America, in 

 the republics of Venezuela, New Granada, 

 Columbia, &c. 



Now, in hot and rainy seasons these steppes 

 teem with rich and luxuriant verdure; the 

 plants growing up in the marshes are prolific 

 and abundant, and even those parts of the wild 

 moors which produce nothing but heath are 

 capable of feeding and fattening flocks and 

 herds. 



Under conditions so auspicious as these, 

 animals may still suffer, but in what way? 

 By excess of food, or repletion. They are in 

 general robust and healthy, and thus fortified 

 they inhale without detriment the deleterious 

 gases of oxygen with carbon, carburetted hy- 

 drogen and the like, exhaled by the plants which 

 grow out of the swampy soils. Thus protected, 

 too, they are proof against the fluctuations of 

 the seasons, and against every injury which 

 threatens them; and their strong and sound 



