BOS. 



well understood as the law of gravitation ? There is 

 no mystery in the one any more than in the other, 

 save the mystery of ignorance, and, only .'300 years 

 ago, that enveloped the laws of motion far more 

 closely than it at present does the laws of life. 

 Gravitation is not matter, but it is a universal pheno- 

 menon of matter, and life is not matter, but animal 

 life is a universal phenomenon of living matter. The 

 two, therefore, stand in the very same predieament ; 

 and we have no more reason to despair in the one 

 case than we had in the other. But as in the one in- 

 stance so in the other, mere observing will not do ; we 

 must study all the relations, and they are far more 

 numerous than in the other instance. This is the age 

 of observation in natural history ; our vigilant students 

 are Tycho : may we soon hope 1'or a Kepler to quarry 

 the block, and a Newton to work out the statue. 



The analogy which we have to mention is but a 

 light one, and cannot conduce much to the grand 

 purpose ; but on a subject where mere appearance 

 has been almost every thing, and relation almost 

 nothing, or the counterfeit of it (made by the idle 

 fancy of the dreamer) less than nothing, the very 

 smallest hint ought not to be lost. Now, in all these 

 horned animals, taking them from the elk to the 

 rhinoceros, there is an increase of the production of 

 horny substance and skin, and a decrease of that of 

 bone in the horn, and hairy covering upon the skin, 

 as we proceed from the pole to the equator. The 

 horns of the rein-deer and the elk are not true horns, 

 but consist wholly of bone. The bisons have small 

 horns ; they are larger in the ox, and largest in those 

 varieties which inhabit nearest the equator, as in the 

 oxen of Abyssinia ; they are larger still in the buffa- 

 loes, and in some of the species they form a horny 

 plate of great thickness along the whole frontal ridge ; 

 and in the rhinoceros, the armature of the head con- 

 sists wholly of horn without any bony core. So also 

 the elk and the rein-deer have the bony covering 

 remarkably close, but the skin of rather loose texture, 

 and deficient in gelatine. The bisons, though their 

 coat is longer, have it not so close, and their skins 

 are more compact ; the ox has the coat still thinner, 

 and the hide firmer; the buffalo, at least the Indian 

 nne (and the one of Southern Africa is in a colder 

 latitude) has the hair so very thin that it does not 

 cover the skin, while the skin is the thickest among 

 all the ruminantia ; and the hide ot the rhinoceros is 

 almost naked, and nearly impenetrable by common 

 weapons. 



All animals which have the skin thus naked and 

 thick are fond of walking in the mud and being in 

 the water, and they are but ill able to endure the 

 cold. The buffalo retains the obedience to climate 

 which is characteristic of the genus to a considerable 

 extent ; but still it cannot face extremes of cold 

 nearly so well as extremes of heat, and it is very 

 partial to w allowing in the mud and swimnmi"- in the 

 water. Further, though the buffalo is a ruminant 

 animal, it partakes of the sullen character of the thick- 

 skinned tenants of its native jungles. It cannot be at- 

 tached to man as the ox can ; and though its strength 

 and power of enduring the heat render it valuable for 

 si nne purposes, it cannot be made the same general 

 servant to man as the ox. When they are roused by 

 danger, either to themselves or their young, buffaloes 

 are very resolute in their attacks, and their style 

 of warfare combines that of the ox and the elephant. 

 They butt with the forehead, the large ridgy shield 



of bone upon which render the blow of an animal of 

 so much weight very serious ; they also toss with the 

 lorns, and it is when they succeed in the toss that 

 they resemble the elephant ; they kneel upon the 

 'alien enemy before it can recover itself, and by the 

 weight of their bodies press it to death. But an 

 enraged buffalo, like an enraged elephant, is not 

 satisfied with the mere killing of that which it attacks ; 

 it will return again and again, and gore and trample 

 the remains till they are separated bone from bone. 

 They retain this propensity even in the domesticated 

 state, and when they observe any of the more 

 formidable carnivorous animals, they rush boldly to 

 the attack, and in situations where the beast of prey 

 has no time to crouch and make his spring, the 

 buffalos usually master him. Thus, it is only when a 

 buffalo can be approached skulkingly, and generally 

 when he is apart from the herd, that even the lion 

 or the tiger will venture to attack him. When once 

 the spring is taken, and the beast of prey has got his 

 hold, he can master the strongest single buffalo, 

 because those predatory animals always spring to a 

 place where the prey cannot injure them, and they 

 convert the very strength of the prey into a means of 

 its own destruction ; but if the herd are near and 

 excited, the dead buffalo would be no meal for the 

 lion or the tiger ; the rest would instinctively set 

 on him and finish him, just as the one of a pair of 

 ravens will go in and finish a hawk, if the hawk 

 pounces on its mate. Indeed, it is only when strongly 

 pressed by hunger, and under circumstances very 

 favourable to its purpose, that either the tiger or the 

 lion will attack the buffalo. 



Under ordinary circumstances, the buffalo is a 

 quiet, and, to a very considerable extent, a manageable 

 animal ; but its chief use is as a beast of draught or 

 of burden, or for its skin when dead. The milk can 

 be used, but the flesh of the buffalo is rank and 

 coarse, and thus it has not the same general utility as 

 the ox to recommend it. 



There are two species of buffaloes, the Indian, and 

 the Cape, or South African. The former has been 

 domesticated, spread over various countries, and of 

 course broken into varieties, which differ from each 

 other in the forms of their horns, and in several other 

 of their minor characters, though they do so lo 

 much less extent than oxen. These varieties have 

 often been described as species, and they have been 

 called by different names, and names which are given 

 to them in those countries where they are all natives ; 

 but popular language is a very unsafe guide in these 

 matters. If an observer from Hindustan were to 

 make the tour of the districts of this country, and 

 notice the varieties of an animal a horse or a pig, 

 for instance, together with the local names, he might 

 return with his portfolio full of species and specific 

 names, and much more must an observer in India be 

 exposed to this deception. That there are wild buf- 

 faloes in India is not meant to be denied, any more 

 than that there are wild and domesticated animals of 

 oth'jr kinds ; but the species is most likely the same 

 in the buffalo, just as it is in the gayal and others. 

 Tliis is rendered more probably by there being con- 

 siderable differences among the wild ones, especially 

 in size, in development of the horns, and in boldness 

 of character. The larger and more formidable ones 

 are met with in the richer jungles, which may be 

 considered as the best pastures ; and it is very natural 

 to conclude, that, frop> *he superiority of their feeding 



