THE DEVONS. )» 



from that of the back. In the Devon ox, however, there is a pecu- 

 Har rising of the forehand, reminding us of the blood-horse, and 

 essentially connected with the free and quick action by which this 

 breed has ever been distinguished. It has little or no dewlap 

 depending from its throat. The horns are longer than those of the 

 bull, smaller, and fine even to the base, and of a lighter color, and 

 tipped with yellow. The animal is light in the withers ; the shoulders 

 a little oblique ; the breast deep, and the bosom open and wide, par- 

 ticularly as contrasted with the fineness of the withers. The fore- 

 legs are wide apart, looking like pillars that have to support a great 

 weight. The point of the shoulder is rarely or never seen. There is 

 no projection of bone, but there is a kind of level line running on to 

 the neck. 



These are characteristic and important points. Angular bony pro- 

 jections are never found in a beast that carries much flesh and fat. 

 The fineness of the withers, the slanting direction of the shoulder, and 

 the broad and open breast, imply strength, speed, and aptitude to 

 fatten. A narrow-chested animal can never be useful either for 

 workincr or trrazinsr. 



With all the lightness of the Devon ox, there is a pomt about him, 

 disliked in the blood or riding-horse, and not approved in the horse 

 of light draught — the legs are far under the chest, or rather the 

 breast projects far nnd wide before the legs. We see the advantage 

 of this in the beast of slow draught, who rarely breaks into a trot, ex- 

 cept when he is goaded on in catching times, and the division of 

 whose foot secures him from stumbling. The lightness of th^ other 

 parts of his form, however, counterbalances heaviness here. 



The legs are straight, at least in the best herds. If they are in- 

 kneed, or crooked in the fore-legs, it argues a deficiency in blood, and 

 comparative incapacity for work ; and for grazing, too, for they will 

 be hollow behind the withers, a point for which nothing can compen- 

 sate, because it takes away so much from the place where good flesh 

 and fat should be thickly laid on, and diminishes the capacity of the 

 chest and the power of creating arterial and nutritious blood. 



The fore-arm is particularly large and powerful. It swells out 

 suddenly above the knee, but is soon lost in the substance of the 

 shoulder. Below the knee, the bone is small to a very extraordinary 

 degree, indicating a seeming want of strength ; but this impression 

 imtiiediately ceases, for the smallness is only in front — it is only in 

 the bone : the leg is deep, and the sinews are far removed from the 

 bone, promising both strength and speed. It may perhaps be 

 objected that the leg is a little too long. It would be so in an ani- 

 mal destined only to graze ; but this is a working animal, and some 

 ength of leg is necessary to get him actively over the ground. 



There is a very trifling fall behind the withers, but no hollowness, 

 and the line of the back is straight from them to the setting on of the 



