THEORY OP THE EARTH, r Bl 



The buffalo was not domesticated by the an- 

 cients ; but the bos Indicus, or Indian ox of Elian,* 

 having horns sufficiently large to contain three am- 

 phorae, was assuredly that variety of the buffalo 

 which is now called the arnee. 



The ancients were acquainted with hornless 

 oxen,f and with that African variety of the ox 

 whose horns are only fastened to the skin,J and 

 hang down dangling at the sides of the head. 

 They also knew those oxen of India which could 

 run as swift as horses, and those which are so 

 small as not to exceed the size of a he-goat. || Sheep 

 also with broad tails were not unknown to them,% 

 and those other Indian sheep which were as large 

 as asses.** 



Although the accounts left us by the ancients 

 respecting the urus, or aurochs, the rein-deer, and 

 the elk, are all mingled with fable, they are yet suffi- 

 cient to prove that these animals were not unknown 

 to them, but that the reports which had reached 

 them had been communicated by ignorant or bar- 

 barous people, and had not been corrected by the 

 actual observations of men of learning. 



* .Elian. Anim. III. 34. 

 }Id, 11.20. 

 Ji Id. ibid. 

 ** Id. IV. 32. 



fid. II. 53. 

 ^ Id. XV. 24. 

 IT Id. III. S. 



11 



