62 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 



so speak, than their less spirited brethren, whose 

 ears are pendent or laid back, and that this 

 circumstance seems to indicate some approach 

 to civilization in them ; it may, probably, be 

 deemed to result from some developement of the 

 brain produced by education, and present some 

 analogy to the effects of the latter in the human 

 species. 



There is a certain protuberance growing on 

 the back, between the shoulders, and consisting 

 chiefly of fat, which distinguishes the Indian 

 oxen, both the larger and smaller varieties, from 

 our own, which is known sometimes to attain to 

 the enormous weight of fifty pounds ; the ox of 

 Surat is stated to have two of these bosses, or 

 humps. Now, Burckhardt has observed, with 

 respect to the camel, that " While the hump 

 continues full, the animal will endure consider- 

 able fatigue on a very short allowance, feeding, 

 as the Arabs say, on the fat of its own hump. 

 After a long journey the hump almost entirely 

 subsides, and it is not till after three or four 

 months' repose, and a considerable time after 

 the rest of the carcass has acquired flesh, that it 

 resumes its natural size of one fourth of the 

 whole body." This conjecture of the Arabs 

 may, very probably, be well founded, for it is 

 known that animals which become torpid in the 

 winter, are very fat and have several cauls 

 abounding in that substance ; but when they 



