204 THOSE OTHER ANIMALS. 



expending an amount of energy per hour sufficient, if other- 

 wise employed, to lift nearly six tons' weight one foot from 

 the ground ; so that, considering the number of cows in Great 

 Britain, it is clear that an amount of power in comparison 

 to which that of Niagara is as nothing is being wasted. 

 The thoughtful agriculturist will surely perceive that as an 

 expenditure of energy means loss of flesh -and decreased 

 production of milk, it would be to his interest to envelop 

 his cattle in mosquito curtains during the summer months. 

 The cow is best seen in a state of repose. Either as lying 

 down or standing in the shade of a tree, dreamily chewing 

 the cud, and vaguely wondering whether beet or turnips 

 will form the staple of her supper, there are few animals 

 more taking to the eye. She can walk, too, without for- 

 feiting our respect, but she is a lamentable spectacle when 

 she runs. The poetry of motion does not exist in the case 

 of the cow, and yet it is clear that she takes the greatest 

 pains about her running, and puts her whole heart into it ; 

 personally, then, she is not to blame in that the result is, 

 as an exhibition, a failure. The fault lies in nature rather 

 than in the individual. In the course of the Darwinian 

 process of transforming, let us say a mole into a cow, it 

 was clearly in the creature's mind that the day would come 

 when she would be milked. Each of the countless gene- 

 rations required to bring her to her present form kept 

 this contingency steadily in view, and practised kicking 

 sideways. The result is, so far as the milkmaid is con- 

 cerned, a superb success, and the cow is able to kick side- 

 ways in a manner that excites the envious admiration of 

 the horse ; but, as was to be expected, with the acquisition 

 of the sideway motion the cow's leg lost the power possessed 



