THE TRUE OXEN. 



127 



of the Germans, the Tur of the Poles (Bos 

 primigenius), which in the middle ages still 

 lived wild in Central Europe, and which was 

 equal in size to the bison, or even surpassed 

 it. It was dreaded in the chase, and accord- 

 ing to the account of a contemporary, differed 

 "from the tame cattle only in being black 

 and in having a whitish stripe on the back." 



According to Riitimeyer a white kind of 

 cattle with black or red ears preserved in 

 some English and Scottish parks, as in that 

 of Chillingham belonging to Lord Tankerville, 

 and the high parks of the Duke of Hamilton 

 at Hamilton, almost in a wild state, is the 

 most direct and least modified descendant of 

 the Auerochs. The tame breeds of the 



Fig. 198. — The Zebu (Bos indicus), 



lowlands bordering on the North Sea and 

 the Baltic, the breeds of Friesland, Holland, 

 Holstein, and Podolia, and so on, are likewise 

 said to be more modified descendants of the 

 same stock, the urus. 



The heavy spotted breeds of Central- 

 Europe, the spotted cattle of France, of 

 Switzerland, and South Germany, the Scan- 

 dinavian and English races with rudimentary 

 horns or without horns at all (short-horns of 

 the English) are said, on the other hand, to 

 be descended from a Quaternary ox, to which 

 the name of Bos frontosus has been given, 

 and which had a rather long head with a 

 brow either flat or even hollowed out in front, 

 and long curved horns. 



Finally, the uniformly coloured unspotted 

 breeds with short strong horns, not so plump 



bodies, and less massive legs, breeds which 

 are chiefly to be found in hilly or mountainous 

 countries; the breeds accordingly of the 

 Highlands of Scotland, of Brittany, Auvergne, 

 Schwyz, and similar districts, are believed to 

 be derived from another stock, the Bos 

 brachynrus, numerous remains of which have 

 been found in the vicinity of the lake-dwell- 

 ings. 



We give our entire assent to these con- 

 clusions, but, as we have already intimated, 

 they are far from exhausting the question. 

 When we consider the ease with which 

 buffaloes, yaks, zebus, and almost all other 

 wild races of cattle can be tamed, acclimatized, 

 and rendered serviceable, such attempts must 

 have been made in the remotest antiquity in 

 all countries where such races of wild cattle 



