294 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



bulky to form legs of a low seat, and must be dangerous 

 weapons on the head of the animal. Their structure and 

 native country induced us to apply to them the name of 

 Anoa, because in a note of the late Governor Loten we 

 find the Anoa described as a small buffalo of Celebes, not 

 larger than a middling sheep, gregarious in the mountains 

 of the island, and so fierce, even in confinement, that some 

 of them being kept in a paddock, along with several stags, 

 they ripped up the bellies of fourteen in one night. 



The form of these horns have, in fact, a mixed character, 

 which bears some resemblance to those of a buffalo, and 

 hence it is likely that the animal is considered by the na- 

 tives as one of that species. It is not impossible that it 

 may be ultimately classed in the genus Damalis, and sub- 

 genus Portax, but we believe the female to have horns. Mr. 

 Pennant classed the Anoa among the Buffaloes. 



The Genus Capra* 



It is a fact of a singular nature, that as far as geological 

 pbservations have extended over fossil organic remains, 

 among the multitude of extinct and existing genera, and 

 species of mammiferous animals, which the exercised eye 

 of comparative anatomists have detected, no portions of 

 Caprine or Ovine races have yet been satisfactorily authen- 

 ticated ; yet in a wild state, the first are found in three 

 quarters of the globe, and, perhaps, in the fourth ; and the 

 second most certainly exist in every great portion of, the 

 earth, New Holland, perhaps, excepted. It would almost 

 seem as if this class of animals were added, by the all-bounti- 

 ful hand of Providence, to the stock of other creatures, for 

 the express purpose of being the instruments which should 

 lead man to industry and peace, at least such an effect 

 may, in a great measure, be ascribed to them ; and if not 

 the first companion, the goat may, nevertheless, be regarded 

 as the earliest passive means by which mankind entered 



