376 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



America, set almost constantly to the eastward, and that 

 from this circumstance the chief obstacles arose, which 

 prevented the success of the endeavours to penetrate to- 

 wards Behring's Straits from the eastward ; hence it might 

 be objected that Asiatic animals might thus be conveyed 

 to the coast of America, but no American to that of Asia. 



The Genus Bos. 



In describing some of the former genera of ruminants, 

 we have occasionally introduced our views of the ostensible 

 physical agents employed by providence, to entice man to- 

 wards an improved state of existence, and to advance 

 successively from the state of a hunter to a shepherd ; fore- 

 going the exclusive use of flesh, meat, and wild fruits, for 

 a more innocent and a more social life. But the possession of 

 the Dog, the Goat, the Sheep, and even the Camel, could not 

 carry him beyond a wandering state of society : influenced 

 by the condition of the pastures and their seasons, he was 

 compelled to change his residence from place to place, 

 until the Ox and the Buffalo being given him, his interests, 

 as well as his inclinations, induced him to fix his abode 

 and commence the cultivation of the soil. Until he had sub- 

 dued the powers of these bulky animals, all efforts at tillage 

 must have been insignificant, even though, at that early 

 period, he should have been in possession of sundry edible 

 roots, of the Gom, of the Phasis, and even of some Tritica. 

 At first it may be supposed the Bovine race were used only 

 as domesticated grazing creatures ; like the Camel, the Ox, 

 may have been a beast of burden, but the essence of his 

 strength lay not in the back : accident or judgment may 

 have led to the discovery that he would draw ; lengthened 

 shafts were then attached to his shoulders or horns, at the 

 end of which a kind of sledge, such, probably, as is still 

 used in some parts of Asia, may have been fixed and become 

 the type of the cart and the plough, which, with the pro- 



