22 HISTORY OF THE OX. 



they have spread far and wide over the European conti 

 nent ; they have reached North and South Africa, where 

 they now exist in innumerable herds. In the latter coun- 

 tries, they form a most important source of wealth, and are 

 tended with the utmost care their skins regularly dressed, 

 arid their horns twisted and variously ornamented. In 

 some sections of this country (North America), they are 

 more numerous than the wild buffalo ; and in some parts 

 of the Southern continent, they range in immense droves, 

 almost in a state of unreclaimed nature. 



In tracing the origin of these breeds, so extensively 

 spread, and affording a boon of such importance to man- 

 kind, there is much difficulty no records of introduction 

 or of produce existing ; and we are driven to a comparison 

 of the parts least subject to variation, with corresponding 

 parts of the wild species with which we are acquainted. 

 In all the British and American collections at this time, we 

 believe there are not materials for such a comparison ; but 

 in the works of Cuvier, we shall find this in a great 

 measure supplied; and whatever additional information 

 may be within our reach, shall be added. We shall 

 begin with certainly the most important; and endea- 

 vor to trace*the stock of our domestic races of cattle, and 

 the forms they are supposed to assume in the various 

 civilized countries. These are placed in the natural sys- 

 tems, as the Bos taurUs of the older naturalists ; the Bos 

 taurus domesticus of Linnasus. 



By most persons it is thought that the domestic races of 

 our cattle originally sprung from the Bos bubalus, the Indian 

 or American buffalo. Some, again, treat of them as arising 

 from the Aurochs, or wild cattle of Germany and Poland. 

 These, according to the system of Smith, come into sub- 

 genera different from the domestic breeds ; and from both 

 these suppositions, the opinion of Cuvier varies, as he is 

 inclined to consider our present cattle identical with a 



