530 



THE CHILLINGHAM OX. 



from its greater strength and toughness, is preferred to that 

 of the ox or the horse. 



THE CHILLINGHAM Ox. 



Besides the several breeds of our common domestic oxen, 

 which exhibit much variation in size, form, and colour, we 

 have other stocks whose blood has, perhaps, never been mixed 

 with that of allied species or of artificial breeds. They are 

 living in a nearly wild state on certain estates, where they 

 have been carefully preserved for a long period ; but we 

 possess no positive evidence to prove that they are not the 

 degenerated descendants of ancient domestic breeds, possessing 

 differences according to the respective era and locality of 

 such breeds ; or whether they were originally descended 

 from one or more species of ox, distinct from the common 

 kind, but which had, at some period, been more or less 

 mixed with some breed. Regardless of all such possibilities, 

 perhaps one might say probabilities, some writers have settled 

 the question to their own satisfaction, by adopting the very 

 easy course of asserting that these half-wild stocks are the 



