MANCHURIAN BULLS. 
179 
horses graze here, for althougli the soil is sandy, 
yet the pasturage is good. The biixTs-foot trefoil 
grows on it, in company with many grasses not to 
he distinguished from those of England, — the very 
dandelion seems the same. On the outlying 
precincts and among the young oaks which skht 
the plain, that glorious wide-mouthed blue-bell, 
Platycodon grandiflora, blooms in all its pride, 
and Trollius asiaticus is as common as buttercups 
in a Hampshire meadow. Now the IManchurian 
bulls have stamped bare patches in this small 
savannah, and have also left other traces of their 
presence. In these deposits, associated with Apho- 
clius, Geotrupes, and Onthophagus, all shard-beetles, 
we discover '' Sisyphus ! ” You suppose we easily 
win this prize. On the contrary, its acquisition 
was made with considerable difficulty. 
AVliat is that dark body moving steadily and 
slowly across the plain ? It is a herd of cattle com- 
manded by a patriarch bull, with a great black head, 
reddish eyes, short horns, and a dewlap that nearly 
touches the ground. We are serenely engaged in 
