OF NATURAL HISTORY. 465 



The ox Is more influenced by nourifhment than any other 

 domeflic animal. In countries where the pafture is luxuri- 

 ant, the oxen acquire a prodigious fize. To the oxen of 

 Ethiopia and and fome provinces of Aiia, the ancients gave 

 the appellation of Biill-elephatits, becaufe, in thefe regions, 

 they approach to tlie magnitude of the elephant. This efFe6l 

 is chiefly produced by the abundance of rich and fucculent 

 herbage. The Highlands of Scotland, and indeed every 

 high and northern country, afford flriking examples of the 

 influence of food upon the magnitude of cattle. The oxen, 

 as well as the horfes,in the more northern parts of Scotland, 

 are extremely diminutive ; but, when tranlported to richer 

 pafture, their fize is augmented, and the qualities of their 

 flefh are improved. The climate has likewife a confiderable 

 influence on the nature of the ox. In the northern regions 

 of both continents, he is covered with long foft hair. He 

 has likewife a large bunch on his flioulders ; and this defor- 

 mity is common to the oxen of Aiia, Africa, and America, 

 Thofe of Europe have no bunch. The European oxen, how^ 

 ever, Teem to be the primitive race, to which the bunched 

 kind afcend, by intermixture, in the fecond or third genera- 

 tion. The difference in their fize is remarkably great. The 

 fmall zebu, or bunched ox of Arabia, is not one tenth part of 

 the magnitude of the Ethiopian buil-elephant. 



The influence of food upon the dog-kind feems not to be 

 great. In all his variations and degradations, he appears to 

 follow the difference^ of climate. In the \vanr-cfl climateSj^ 

 he is naked -, in the northern regions, he is covered with a 

 coarfe thick hair ; and he is adorned with a fine filky robe 

 in Spain and Syria, where the mild temperature of the air 

 converts the hair of mofl: quadrupeds into a kind of filk, 

 Befide thefe external variations produced by climate, the dog 

 undergoes other changes, which proceed from his fituation, 

 his captivity, and the nature of the Int^rcourfe he holds witk 



