16 THE URUS. 



a separate species of animals, when, from propagating 

 together, they must originally have been the same. 



Notwithstanding it may be difficult to account for 

 these varieties, yet we must attribute them to some ac- 

 cidental cause ; for the same caprice of Nature that has 

 given horns to some cows, and denied them to others, 

 may also have given the bison a hump, and increased 

 the bulk of the urus ; it may also have bestowed a mane 

 upon the one, and denied a sufficiency of hair to the 

 other. 



THE URUS. 



The Urus, or Wild Bull, is chiefly to be found in the 

 province of Lithuania, and grows to a size superior to 

 that of any other animal, if we except the elephant race. 

 The colour of the urus is a fine black, with one stripe 

 of white that runs in a parallel line entirely along the 

 back from the head to the tail ; the horns are short, 

 thick, and strong ; the eyes are fierce and fiery ; the 

 forehead is adorned with a kind of garland of black 

 curled hair, and some have beards of the same ; the 

 neck is short and strong, and the skin has an odour of 

 musk. The female, though not so big as the male, 

 exceeds our largest bulls in size, but the udder and 

 teats are so very small that they can scarcely be per- 

 ceived. Upon the whole, however, this animal resem- 

 bles the tame one very exactly, except in some trifling 

 varieties, which his state of wildness, or the richness 

 of the pastures where he is found, may easily have 

 produced. 



THE BISON. 



The Bison, which is another animal of the cow kind, 

 differs from the rest in having a lump between its 



