260 THE OX. 



yet untrodden by the feet of naturalists, and we are left 

 to draw our knowledge of its animals from the uncertain 

 notices of travellers, often too much occupied with the dan- 

 gers around them, to be able to afford us the details required. 

 We know, however, that the Ox, under various modifications, 

 abounds throughout those vast countries, is everywhere sub- 

 jected to servitude, affords milk and flesh to the inhabitants, 

 and assists them in their rude labours ; but of the species or 

 races, our knowledge is in a high degree imperfect. So far 

 as we know, the common Ox prevails along all the countries 

 on the Mediterranean, and a part of the shores of the Atlan- 

 tic ; but how much it occupies of the interior, travellers, the 

 most observant, have failed to inform us. The same form 

 appears in Southern Africa, in the races which are cultivated 

 by the Hottentots, the Caffres, and other tribes stretching to 

 the deserts of the interior. The oxen of these races are of 

 small size, like those of the mountainous parts of Europe, 

 and are possessed of great activity and power of endurance. 

 But, in Africa, the Ox likewise presents itself under a dif- 

 ferent form, having the large hump of the Indian Zebu, but 

 being distinguished from the latter animal by large, light, 

 and spreading horns. This race appears in Abyssinia, 

 whence it extends down the Nile to the tropic of Cancer, and 

 perhaps beyond it, westward through the unexplored regions 

 of the countries of the Negroes to the Niger, and southward 

 again through 40 of latitude to the country of the Caffres. 

 It thus seems to extend over nearly all the burning regions 

 of the continent, and it is difficult to believe that an animal 

 so diffused is not indigenous to the country which produces 

 it. It may be conjectured, indeed, that the African is merely 

 the Asiatic Zebu, transported from the East to Western 

 Africa. Though we have nothing to invalidate this opinion, 

 it certainly seems to be a very violent hypothesis; and a 

 more natural supposition is, that an animal occupying all 

 the intertropical regions of Africa, is as proper to the country 

 itself as the Zebu of India is to the countries of the East. 



