188 THE MAMMALIA. 



the original inhabitants of America did not make 

 any attempts to tame the buffalo. At all events, 

 they did not succeed in doing so. Very different 

 have been the results of the attempts of the Euro- 

 pean immigrants, who have repeatedly been engaged 

 in this task since the middle of last century. Thoy 

 have succeeded pretty easily in obtaining a cross 

 between the wild and the domestic animal, by 

 allowing the captured young ones to grow up in the 

 herd ; and it seems certain that this will produce 

 a strong cross-breed. A Mr. Thompson, who, ac- 

 cording to Allen, had watched the attempts at 

 domestication of the unmixed species during iifty 

 years, has expressed his conviction that the animal 

 is capable of being employed for work as well as 

 for yielding milk, while the earlier attempts at cross- 

 breeding were made principally with a view to the 

 horns and skins of the animals. 



Under these circumstances, it seems natural that 

 the question should arise as to whether one or the 

 other race of the European ox must not be traced 

 back to the bison. All those who have carefully 

 studied the question declare the bison to be unfit 

 for domestication, and have referred all the different 

 races of the domestic ox with the exception of 

 the yak to the genus Bos distinguished by the 



