78 JSOVV.& AMD 



whereas they breed together. If the climate of this stateis not sufficiently war-ru 

 for this useful animal it will, no doubt, flourish in the southern states.. 



The young of our buffalo, or bison, have been repeatedly put among the tame 

 cattle at Quebec ; and, after exhibiting, on all occasions, symptoms of their origi- 

 nal wildness have commonly died in a few years. It is supposed that the cli- 

 nnte is there too cold for them. This difficulty cannot exist here. Before the 

 cultivation of the country they were in immense herds in the western parts of 

 the state, frequenting the salt licks, and roving over the wide-spreading luxuri- 

 ant prairies of the Gen?see, and they have given their name to a celebrated 

 stream which rims into Lake Erie near its outlet. It has been domesticated in- 

 South Carolina, but appears to retain some of its primitive wildness. 



Van der Donk informs us that the buffalo was frequently found in the south- 

 ern part of New Netherland, and that there are some individuals who domesti- 

 cate it for their amusement, and being accustomed from its youth to associate 

 with mart, it will become remarkably tame, and not readily return to the forest. 

 The male does not depreciate by castration, nor do male or female degenerate 

 by associating with tame cattle ; but, on the contrary, both are improved. It 

 is believed that crossing the buffalo with the cow will produce, a breed of increas- 

 ed value for the yoke, for the dairy, and for the market ; the buffalo, even in its 

 * wild state, being naturally strong, yielding excellent milk, and inclined to 

 fatten. 



He proceeds to state that there are deer, both bucks and does, of a pure white 

 colour ; and that the mohawk indians have told him that very far in the he-<rt Of 

 i heir country, there existed large beasts oi the form, and above the size, of a 

 horse ; whose hoofs where divided, and whose forehead was ornamented with a 

 single horn, of about the leng'h of twelve or eighteen inches ; whose swiftness in 

 running, and strength, wore so great, that they were taken with the greatest dif- 

 ficulty. " I have nev.er," says he, " seen this animal j but that it does exist I 

 Ho not doubt for a moment ; for the indians universally affirm it, and the chris- 

 tians declare they have seen, in the market, hides with but one horn." 



If thi? account is not fabulous, this was probably the elk seen after he had 

 shed his horns, and when the young ones were sprouting ; but if not, then a race 

 of unknown animals must have, in former times, existed in this state ; which is 

 now extinct. 



It seems, then, that there are three kinds of the animal denominated bos j aii 

 susceptible of domestication, and all highly useful to man. 



1. The bo? indicus or bubalus, orasiatic and africaij buffalo. " 



2. The bos bison, or american buffalo. 



3. The bos taurus, or domestic ox. The two last, probably, varieties of ihfc 

 same species ; and, at all events, specifically distinct from the first. 



