502 
VERTEBRATA. 
DURHAM COW. 
covered with ricli pastures or luxuriant tliickets. It thus becomes a paradise for various species 
of game, aud also for swine, buffaloes, and cattle. Here, beside the animals used for work on 
the farms, large herds roam unmolested, but under the care of keepers, which, together with the 
buffalo keepers and forest-rangers, are the only stationary population in the wild Maremraa. These 
men, who are often criminals fled from justice, are as Avild and dangerous as the brutes under 
their charge ; they are mounted on fast horses and armed with a long lance, which they use in 
driving the cattle or defending themselves from the bulls, which are often fierce and dangerous. 
The cattle are collected at various times and driven by these men to the fairs held in the towns, 
for sale. The bulls are often used for bull-fights. 
The prevailing breed of cattle in Italy is of large size, with tall horns, and dewlaps that sweep 
the ground. Some of the bulls produced in the Campagna^ — the circular space of open country 
around the city of Rome — are splendid specimens. In Tuscany the cattle are of a mouse color, 
with blue eyes, and are a beautiful, docile, and useful breed. 
In Southern Russia vast herds of cattle are reared which are taken to St. Petersburg. These 
animals are generally white, and weigh about seven hundred pounds. They are driven by men 
who travel in wagons drawn by oxen, and are three months on their journey. 
The pastoral economy of Switzerland, which is common to Savoy and other Alpine countries, 
and the annual progress of the shepherds and cowherds, with their flocks of cattle, to and from 
the mountains, are exceedingly interesting. We have not, however, space to describe these 
scenes; nor is it necessary, for they have often been delineated by the pens of admiring travelers. 
In Wallachia and Moldavia cattle are abundant ; in the latter district, indeed, the people con- 
tinue in a great measure their ancient nomadic habits, making use of the services of the ox as a 
beast of draught or burden : united in large caravans, they roam over an immense extent of 
territory, transporting, in tall vehicles of singular construction, various articles of produce, pro- 
visions, and other things, to the towns scattered at wide distances about the vast plains of Mol- 
davia. Day by day they move cheerfidly on, to the slow and measured sound of the footsteps of 
their oxen, and are often an entire month without seeing a single human habitation. At the ap- 
proach of evening the caravan halts, the numerous wagons are disposed in the form of a square? 
and the oxen are turned out to graze at large, under the watchful care of intrepid dogs who ac- 
company the caravan. In the middle of the square a fire is now lighted, at which the conductor 
prepares his simple repast, and afterward disposes himself for sleep, sheltered by a warm and 
