BOS 
is one hundred and forty-nine, some of which 
send one, but the most of them two repre- 
sentatives. 
Boroughs, royal, in Scotland, are corpo- 
rations made for the advantage of trade, by 
charters granted by several of their kings, 
having the privilege of sending commission- 
ers to represent them in parliament, besides 
other peculiar immunities. They form a 
body of themselves, and send commissioners 
each to an annual convention at Edinburgh, 
to consult for the benefit of trade, and their 
general interest. 
Borough, English, a customary descent 
of lands or tenements, in certain places, by 
which they descend to the youngest instead 
of the eldest son ; or, if the owner have no 
issue, to the younger instead of the elder 
brother. The custom goes with the land, 
although there be a devise or feoffment at 
the common law to the contrary. The 
reason of this custom, says Littleton, is, be- 
cause tile youngest is presumed, in law, to 
be least able to provide for himself. 
Borough-head, or headborough, called 
also borough-holder, or bursholder, the 
chief man of the decenna, or hundred, 
chosen to speak and act in behalf of the 
rest. * 
Headborough also signifies a kind of head 
constable, where there are several chosen as 
his assistants, to serve warrants, &c. 
BORROWING, when money, corn, 
grain, gold, or other commodity, merely 
esteemed according to its price, is borrow- 
ed, it is repaid by returning an equal quan- 
tity of the same thing, or an equal value in 
money. If money is borrowed, it is always 
understood that interest is payable, and it is 
bylaw demand-able; but when a house, or 
a horse, &c. is borrowed, the restoration of 
the identical property is always understood ; 
or if a thing be used for any other, or more 
purposes, than those for which it was bor- 
rowed, or be lost, the party may have Iris 
action on the case for it. 
BOS, in zoology, the ox, a genus of qua- 
drupeds of the order of Pecora. The ge- 
neric character is, horns concave, turned 
outwards, lunated, smooth ; front teeth 
eight in the lower jaw ; canine teeth none. 
B. taurus, the bison, from which the seve- 
ral races of common cattle have been gra- 
dually derived, is found wild in many parts, 
both of the old and the new continent ; in- 
habiting woody regions, and arriving at a 
size far larger than that of the domestic or 
cultivated animal. In tills its native state 
VOL. I. 
BOS 
of wildness, the bison is distinguished not 
only by his size, but by the superior depth 
anti shagginess of his hair, which about the 
head, neck, and shoulders, is sometimes of 
such a length as almost to touch the ground. 
His horns are rather short, sharp-pointed, 
extremely strong, and stand distant from 
each other at their bases, like those of the 
common bull. His colour is sometimes of 
a dark blackish brown , and sometimes ru- 
fus brown ; his eyes large and fierce ; his 
limbs extremely strong, and his whole aspect 
in a degree savage and gloomy. See 
Plate III. Mammalia, fig. 2. 
The principal European regions where 
this animal is at present found, are the 
marshy forests of Poland, the Carpathian 
mountains, and Lithuania. Its chief Asiatic 
residence is the neighbourhood of Mount 
Caucasus ; but it is also found in other 
parts of the Asiatic world. The American 
bison seems to differ in no respect from the 
European, except in being more shaggy, 
and having a R*j£e protuberant bunch or 
fleshy substance over the shoulders. It 
grows to a vast size, and has been found to 
weigh sixteen hundred, and even two thou- 
sand four hundred pounds, the strongest 
man cannot lift one of the skins from the 
ground. These were the only animals which 
bore any affinity to the European cattle, on 
the first discovery of the American conti- 
nent, and might have been made to answer 
every purpose of the European cow ; but 
the natives being in a savage state, and 
living chiefly by chase, had never attempted 
the domestication of the animal. The com- 
mon ox is, in reality, the bison reduced to 
a domestic state ; in which, in different 
parts of the world, it runs into as many va- 
rieties as the sheep ; differing widely in 
size, form, and colour, according to cli- 
mate and other circumstances. Its impor- 
tance in this its domestic state needs not be 
mentioned. Formerly the ox constituted 
the whole riches of mankind ; and he is 
still the basis of the wealth of nations, which 
subsist and flourish in proportion to the cul- 
tivation of their lands and the number of 
their cattle. 
The Urus, or wild bull, is a variety of 
the ox kind, and is chiefly to be met with 
in the extensive forests of Lithuania. It 
grows to a size almost equal to the elephant, 
and is quite black ; the eyes are rqd and 
fiery, the horns thick and short, and the 
forehead covered with a quantity of curled 
hair ; the neck is short and strong, and tire 
skin has an odour of musk. The female, 
Pp 
