534 THE COMMON OX. 



preceding brief particulars ; but how much more would they 

 be indebted to him if they had the opportunity of inspecting 

 the living animal and the skeleton in some exhibition. Surely 

 one specimen out of the herd would not be missed. 



THE COMMON Ox. 



We know of no existing wild species to which we can refer 

 as the original type of the common domestic ox. In many 

 parts of the world there are wild herds, and very extensive 

 herds of cattle of the same species, but then we have the 

 testimony of history to prove that they have originated from 

 individuals that had escaped from domestication. The instance 

 of the wild cattle of America will occur to the reader j and in 

 that quarter of the globe, where they have multiplied to a great 

 extent in a wild state, they were not known to the natives until 

 the Europeans introduced them. It is remarkable that indi- 

 viduals of the horse, the ass, the dog, and the cat, also eman- 

 cipated themselves from domestic thraldom when they reached 

 the New World, where they are now numerous in a wild state, 

 though they are not indigenous to that land. The ox, then, 

 is known at present only as an animal bearing the marks of 

 domestication ; and as it appears from the Scriptures that it 



