TEE FRIESLAND OX. 33 



his pristine purity — the Friesland ox, which, large and 

 grand, naturalists admit was of the Urus type, and 

 retained much of the character of his ancestor. There is 

 no question this was the case, for Tacitus tells us * that, 

 a.d. 28, Drusus, the father of Grermanicus, imposed a tax 

 of hides of oxen upon the Frisians (who, very little more 

 than 400 years later, invaded England under the name 

 of Anglo-Saxons), " which his lieutenant, Olennius, re- 

 quired should come up to the standard of certain terga 

 urorum (skins of the Urus), which he picked out for the 

 purpose." Tacitus implies that this was a difficult 

 matter, and very burdensome to the Frisians, but the 

 passage clearly shows that the Friesland cattle were 

 then of great size, and approximating in that respect to 

 the Urus. Large numbers of them were no doubt de- 

 ported when their proprietors first invaded and then 

 settled in Britain. Still the Friesland ox remained in 

 something like its former state, till, during the last 

 century and the early years of the present, the original 

 type became rare and was finally extinguished. 

 Messrs. Moll and Gayot f class the present Friesland 

 cattle as a mere sub-variety of the Holland or Dutch 

 breed. They tell us that, both in Friesland and in 

 the neighbouring country of Oldenburg, " the ancient 

 Friesland race has succumbed under the blows of re- 

 peated crossings following the great epidemics of the 

 end of the last or beginning of this century, and 

 though it still preserves exclusively the name, it is 

 in reality much more Dutch than Friesland." The 

 new stock has indeed some peculiarities of size, form, 

 and colour ; it has, however, no " homogeneity," but 



* " Annals," lib. iv., c. 72. 



t " La Connaissance du Bceuf ," p. 488 : Paris, 1860. 



D 



