I860.] On the Flat-liorned Taurine Cattle of S. JE. Asia. 291 



From accounts of the savage nature of the wild Yak, the same might 

 have been inferred of that species, which we know to be extensively 

 domesticated ; or, if we were only acquainted with the wild Rein Deer 

 as it exists in arctic America, the varied applicability of the domestic 

 herds of the coiTesponding regions of the major continent would 

 scarcely have been predicated. So with the African Elephant in 

 modern times, as compared with the Asiatic Elephant !* Civilized 

 man, as a rule, exterminates but does not domesticate — has not 

 hitherto done so at least, whatever efforts may of late have been made 

 (with but moderate residt hitherto) by the Acclimation and different 

 Zoological Societies. A cultivated country, however, is ill adapted 

 for such experiments. Wild animals are rather to be won over, by 

 degrees, in their indigenous haunts, where their habits of life are 

 little changed by domestication, and their food continues to be 

 that to which the race is accustomed : their subjugation being accord- 

 ingly effected by human tenants of the same haunts, who can hardly 

 have emerged from savagery, but are practically familiar with the 

 habits of the creatures they seek to subdue. It is thus that the 

 three species of known wild Asiatic Taurines with flattened horns 

 have (each of them) been domesticated, to a greater or less extent, 

 in their own wildernesses. A few calves may have originally been 

 caught and tamed, and some stock established ; but how entire herds 

 of full-grown wild animals may be won over and gradually domes- 

 ticated, is thus told by Mr. McEae in Lin. Tr. VII, 303 et seg;. 

 The G-ayal or Mitfhun, (GrAVEUS frontalis) being the species 

 referred to. 



" The Kukis have a very simple method of training the wild Grayals, 



* In a letter just received from Sir J. Emerson Tennent, I learn that the 

 Elephant of Ceylon is considered to be identical with that of Sumatra (!), 

 which is adjudged to be a peculiar species (intermediate to the existing African 

 and Indian Elephants) by Prof. Schlegel and the late Prof. Temminck, as also 

 by the late Prince of (Janino. At all events the Sumatran Elephant is descrioed 

 by three or four authors, to whom I have had access, to bear generally fine 

 tusks (i. e. the males), whereas a fine tusker is exceptional in the instance of the 

 Elephant of Ceylon. Sir J. E. Tennent's elaborate and most interesting series 

 of chapters on the great proboscidian discloses certain facts, on the family 

 resemblances of particular herds of Elephants, which will not fail to interest the 

 disciples of Mr. C. Darwin. How about the Elephants of the Malayan penin- 

 sula ; if not also of the Indo-Chinese countries, as far at least as Cochin- China? 

 I am trying to obtain grinders, i. e. molar teeth, in the hope of coming soon to 

 some understanding in the matter. 



2 Q 2 



