THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE OX. 
13 
retiring, a new system of lakes was established. The country 
became clothed with forests, and inhabited by large deer, rhi- 
noceroses, hippopotami, and hyenas ; and, mixed with those 
earliest forms and genera which exist at the present time, were 
these lacustrine mammalia which we have just mentioned of 
the eocene period ; and a gigantic herbivorous animal, called the 
denotherium, measuring from fifteen to eighteen leet long, pos- 
sessing a head a yard broad and a yard wide; also the megathe- 
rium, or fossil sloth, whose bulky size may be inferred by a tail 
six feet in circumference, and, like the rhinoceros, armed with a 
coat of mail, and extracting, with a single delve of his talons, 
the roots of gigantic trees ; the mastodon, allied to the elephant; 
the hippotherium, allied to the horse ; the felis, or cat, as large 
as a lion ; the machairdos, allied to the bear ; and the agnothe- 
rium, allied to the dog, as large as a panther ; these were among 
the countless inhabitants that were cotemporaneous with the 
hero of our tale, — the Ox. 
The nearest, and perhaps most intimate, companion that he 
possessed was an animal that we have not yet mentioned — the 
Bison. So close a resemblance, indeed, did he bear to him, that 
by many persons of late years they were supposed to be one and 
the same animal, but at the period to which our history refers 
they were easily recognised. We shall have occasion to notice 
these differences by and by ; in the meantime, having already 
introduced the hero himself, we will proceed to describe him. 
In those days he was known amongst his acquaintances — and 
we have already introduced them to your notice — by his proper 
name of Urus, which has been changed of late for the sobriquet, 
Ox; and it is generally acknowledged that at that time he was 
a most formidable character, being a perfectly wild and savage 
animal. Some of his descendants may now be seen in one or two 
of the northern parks, the last remnants of his wild race. He was 
also of an enormous size, possessing a head full one-third larger 
than the domesticated urus, and mounted with monstrous horns. 
In mentioning only those gigantic monsters, the cotemporaries 
of the ox, the mind naturally reverts to the remote period when 
the face of nature, and plants, and animals, was in some mea- 
sure different from what it is at present. Palms, reeds, and 
many other kinds, are met with in the strata in which the re- 
mains of these animals have been found ; indicating, upon the 
whole, a vegetation not exactly of tropical climates, but rather 
such as now clothes the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. 
But the whole scene again became changed — hundreds of 
pent-up volcanos suddenly burst forth, and spread ruin and deso- 
lation over the land : the whole of the living population is swept 
