118 OX, OR COW KIND. 



but, in England, the prevailing monopoly of land debars 

 thousands, among the common people, from keeping this 

 excellent animal, whose very milk they cannot purchase 

 from the opulent farmers, even for money. 



The climate and pasture of this island are admirably 

 suited to the nature of the cow : it loves to graze in high 

 and rich pastures ; and here its taste is highly and amply 

 gratified. In consequence, it grows to a very large size, 

 and yields an abundant supply of milk. 



The cow seems more subject to changes from climate 

 and food than any other quadruped. Within the narrow 

 bounds of the British islands, we can easily trace the 

 different varieties produced among these animals by the 

 richness or poverty of the soil. Indeed, in every part of 

 the world, the cow is found either large or small, in pro- 

 portion to the luxuriant or scanty nature of its aliment. 

 Thus, Africa is remarkable at once for the largest and 

 smallest cattle of this kind. The same effects may be 

 traced to the same cause, in India, Poland, and many 

 other countries. Among the Eluth Tartars, where the 

 pastures are remarkably rich and flourishing, the cow 

 grows to such an enormous size, that a tall man can 

 scarcely reach the top of its shoulder ; in France, on the 

 contrary, where this animal is stinted in its food, it greatly 

 degenerates, and is neither valuable for its milk nor its 

 flesh. The variations, however, in the size of this qua- 

 druped are less remarkable than those of its form, its hair, 

 and its horns ; in many, indeed, these variations are so 

 extraordinary, that they have been considered as consti- 

 tuting different species. However, the wild cow and the 

 tame, the animal peculiar to Europe, and that to Asia, 

 Africa, and America ; the bonasus, the urus, the bison, 

 and the zebu, all possess the certain criterion of a common 

 origin, namely, that of breeding and propagating together. 

 In -the course of a few generations, the discriminations 

 between them become extinct ; yet the bison appears so 

 essentially different from the common cow, that it merits 

 a particular description, which we shall give in a separate 

 section. 



