214 THE OX. 



be disposed of to the inhabitants. It is said that they are 

 sometimes kept on the farms of Kentucky, \vhere the objec- 

 tions to them are, that the cow yields a small quantity of 

 milk, and of a musky flavour ; and that she is restless, leap- 

 ing the barriers intended to confine her, and enticing "the 

 other cattle to follow her to the woods. The flesh of the 

 animal is reckoned good, and in an especial degree the tongue, 

 and fleshy hump upon the shoulder. The hair has so much 

 of the woolly character, that it may be woven into cloth, or 

 formed into hats by the felting process : the skin is very 

 thick, and when tanned, or else with the w r ool upon it, forms 

 a warm covering, used by the Indians for cloaks and blankets. 

 But the chief value of the domesticated Bison, it may be be- 

 lieved, would be for the purposes of labour, for which his 

 agility and the great strength of his shoulders seem pecu- 

 liarly to adapt him. A farmer on the great Kenhawa, we 

 are informed by Mr Bingley, broke a young Bison to the 

 yoke : the animal performed his work to admiration, and the 

 only fault his master had to find with him was, that his pace 

 was too quick for the steer with which he was yoked. 



Beyond the range of the American Bison, and stretching 

 into regions of everlasting ice, is the habitat of another spe- 

 cies of Bison, suited to other conditions of temperature and 

 food. The MUSK Ox, Ovibos moschatus, first appears about 

 the 60th degree of northern latitude, and thence is found to 

 the very extremity of the American continent, wandering in 

 search of food to the dreary islands beyond it during the brief 

 space of the arctic vegetation. This creature is about the 

 size of the little Ox of the most northerly Highlands of Scot- 

 land. He has no muzzle, or naked space around the nose 

 and lips, like the Common Ox and Bison, but, like the Sheep, 

 he is covered to the lips with hair ; and hence the genus has 

 been termed Ovibos, as partaking of the character of the Ox 

 and the Sheep. His horns, broad at the base, covering the 

 upper part of the forehead, and bending downward, and then 

 upward, enable him to defend himself against the Bear and 



