i 7 4 THE BUFFALO, &c. 



rope *, and arc of the fame race with the com- 

 mon kind. In Switzerland, where the tops of the 

 the firft mountains are covered with verdure and 

 flowers, and are folely deftined for the feeding 

 of cattle, the oxen are nearly double the fize of 

 thofe in France, where they are commonly 

 fed upon grofs herbage, which is defpifed by 

 the horfes. During winter, bad hay and leaves 

 are the common food of our oxen ; and, in 

 fpring, when they ftand in need of being re- 

 cruited, they are excluded from the meadows. 

 Hence they fuller more in fpring than in win- 

 ter; for they then hardly receive any thing in 

 the liable, but are conducted into the highways, 

 into fallow grounds, or into the woods, and are 

 always kept at a diftance from fertile land ; fo 

 that they are more fatigued than nourifhed. 

 Laftly, in fummer, they are permitted to go in- 

 to the meadowsi which are then eat up, and 

 parched with drought. During the whole year, 

 therefore, thefe animals are never fufficiently 

 nourifhed, nor receive food agreeable to their 

 nature. This is the fole caufe which renders 

 them weak, and of a fmall fize; for, in Spain, 

 and in fome diftricts of our provinces, where 

 the pafture is good, and referved for oxen alone, 

 they are much larger and ftronger. 



In 



* In the Ukraine, the pafture is fo excellent, that the cattle 

 are much larger than in any other part of Europe. It re- 

 quires a man above the common ftature to be able to lay his 

 hand on the middle of an ox's back ; Relat. de la Grande Tar- 

 tar ie, p. 227. 



