HISTORY. 255 



them in clouds, and the effects of the barbarous treatment of 

 their wild keepers. The time, indeed, it may be believed, 

 will come when those rich and beautiful lands, so blessed by 

 the bounties of Nature, so cursed by the ignorance of man, 

 in place of yielding ship-loads of hides, will support an in- 

 dustrious population capable of appreciating and using the 

 natural gifts of their country. 



The Ox has thus found a new habitat more suitable for the 

 increase of his numbers, than in the most fertile plains of 

 Asia and Europe. He has also been carried to North America 

 and its islands, wherever the settlements of Europeans are 

 found, and equally adapts himself to these situations as 

 to those which are nearer to his native climes. In the United 

 States, he is cultivated with considerable care, and has the 

 same useful characters communicated to him by artificial 

 treatment, and the selecting of the parent stock, as in the 

 countries of Europe, where attention has been paid to the 

 development of his properties. 



But in the warmer regions of Eastern Asia, the Ox appears 

 with such distinct form and characters, as to leave the na- 

 turalist in doubt whether he ought to be regarded as a dis- 

 tinct species, rather than as a variety or race. He is gene- 

 rally termed the Zebu, from an Indian name ; and though he 

 differs greatly in size in different localities, he presents every 

 where the same general character which ancient figures shew 

 him to have possessed from the earliest times. 



The Indian Ox has a flatter and more oblique forehead than 

 the Ox of western Asia and Europe ; his horns are more 

 straight, short, and directed backwards; his ears are very long, 

 and pendent. He is furnished with a large fleshy lump upon 

 the shoulders, his haunch is very round, like that of the Gayal, 

 and his limbs are slender and graceful. His skin is soft, 

 and he is furnished with a large dewlap hanging down in 

 folds. In his general form, he approaches more to the larger 

 Antelopes than the Ox of the West. 



The Zebu is found throughout the whole of Hindostan, and 



