92 BRITISH QUADRUPEDS. 



shows that they had great numbers of cattle, that they 

 did little in tillage, and lived on the flesh and milk of 

 these animals. Such a mode of life suited the existing 

 state of society. Divided, as the island was, into many 

 petty sovereignties, no fixed property was secure, and 

 that only was valuable which might be hurried away on 

 the approach of an invader. 



In the roving and uncertain life so long led by our an- 

 cestors, their cattle would sometimes stray and be lost. 

 As the country was overgrown with forests, the beasts 

 betook themselves to their recesses, became wild, and 

 indeed ferocious. Sometimes, from their number, they 

 were dangerous to the inhabitants of the neighbouring 

 districts. As, however, civilisation advanced, these 

 animals were more rarely seen, and at length almost 

 disappeared. 



The parent race of the ox is said to have been much 

 larger than any of the present varieties. The Urus, in 

 his wild state, at least, was an enormous and fierce ani- 

 mal. In almost every part of England, and of the Con- 

 tinent too, skulls have been found, far exceeding in bulk 

 any now known, evidently belonging to cattle. 



In the Earl of Tankerville's park, at Chillingham, near 

 Berwick-upon-Tweed, there was lately a herd of wild 

 cattle ; these, with one or two other instances, afford 



