THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE OX. 
11 
mental articles of the Christian faith, it is not to be wondered at 
that it should be believed so long, and that, when Hutton first 
announced that the earth afforded no trace of a commencement 
or any prospect of an end, he should have been assailed as an 
infidel. But time effects changes in the moral as well as the 
physical world, and such a belief is now considered no way 
obnoxious to a true interpretation of the sacred text. The vast 
antiquity of the globe is now as fully demonstrated as its 
spheroidal figure ; and the lapse of ages which must have oc- 
curred in the completion of a geological epoch is clearly proved 
by a glance only of the different fossil genera and species in 
their respective strata, by the order of which we are enabled to 
calculate, to a certain extent, the number of revolutions the globe 
has undergone. 
As, in the history of the Horse, it is our intention to render 
some of the geological phenomena subservient to unravel the 
early history of the Ox — his story being antecedent to all human 
history and tradition — the strata on which his remains have 
been found are the only manuscripts by which it can be eluci- 
dated : and as every author is at liberty to select the spot on 
which his hero shall “strut his hour upon the stage,' ” provided he 
is a little particular as to the place and date of birth, so do we 
choose the soil of France whereon he shall commence his career 
and run his race. Unfortunately, there was no registry-office 
kept in those days ; yet, notwithstanding this, we hope to furnish 
our readers with tolerably correct data as to his birth, though 
we may not be able to discover the exact locality where he was 
first ushered into life. We shall also introduce to them some of 
our hero’s acquaintance, by which they will be enabled to judge 
in some measure of his character — for the character of an indivi- 
dual is frequently determined by the company he keeps. 
Our readers will now have the goodness to recollect that, 
in our ancient history of the horse, we described his fossil remains 
as being found in immense numbers in the diluvial strata, which 
must be considered as totally distinct from the regular strata, 
consisting of beds of loam and argillaceous sand, &c. Now, be- 
tween this and the chalk formation are strata filled with fresh 
and salt-water productions. These mark the irruptions and re- 
treats of the sea to which portions of the earth have been sub- 
jected posteriorly to the formation of the chalk. Mr. Lyell 
has recently proposed a fourfold division of this formation, com- 
monly called the tertiary series : — Eocene, w^hich implies the com- 
mencement or dawn of the existing state of the present animal 
creation ; Miocene, which implies that a minority existed ; older 
and newer Phocene, by which is understood* that the majority 
