BOS. 
dairy and for draught. The district ot the 
Pontine marshes is the spot which may be 
considered as their principal station. In 
India this animal is occasionally used for 
the saddle, as a substitute for the horse. 
The buffalo, like other animals of this ge- 
nus, admits of varieties as to size and figure. 
Of these, the most remarkable is the small 
naked Indian buffalo of Mr. Pennant, which 
is the size of a runt, with a nearly naked 
body, thinly beset with bristly hair; the 
rump and thighs quite bare ; the first being 
marked on each side with dusky stripes 
pointing downwards, the last with two 
transverse stripes ; the horns compressed 
sideways, taper, and sharp at the point. It 
is a native of India. Another variety, still 
smaller, is said to occur in the mountains of 
the Celebes, which are full of caverns. This 
variety is of the size of a middling sheep, 
and is seen in small herds, very wild, and 
difficult to be taken ; and even in confine- 
ment are so fierce, that Mr. Pennant re- 
cords an instance of fourteen stags being 
destroyed in the space of a single night by 
one of these animals, which was kept in the 
same paddock. Fig. 4. 
Bos mpschatus, or musk ox, having very 
long pendant hair, and horns (in the male 
approximated at the base) bending inwards 
and downwards, and outwards at the tips. 
It is a native of North America, where it 
appears to be a very local animal ; being 
found first in the tract between Churchill 
river, and that of the Seals, on the west side 
of Hudson’s bay, and is very numerous be- 
tween the latitudes 66° and 73° north, which 
, is as far as any tribes of Indians go. This 
animal is but of small size, being rather 
lower than the deer, but larger or thicker 
in body. The hair, in the male, is of a 
dusky red colour, extremely fine, and so 
long as to trail on the ground, and render 
the animal a seemingly shapeless mass, with- 
out distinction of head or tail; the legs 
are very short ; the shoulders vise into a 
lump, and the tail is short, being a kind of 
stump of a few inches only, with very long 
hairs. Beneath the hair, on all parts of the 
animal, is a fine cinereous wool, which 
is said to be more beautiful than silk when 
manufactured into stockings and other arti- 
cles. The horns are closely united at the 
base, bending inwards and downwards ; but 
turning outwards towards the tips, which 
are very sharp ; near the base the horns 
are two feet in girth, but are only two feet 
long, when measured along the curvature ; 
the weight of a pair, separated from the 
head, is sometimes sixty pounds. 
Bos grunniens, or yak, (having, with cy- 
lindric horns curving outwards, very long 
pendant hair, and extremely villose, horse- 
like tail), is about the height of an English 
bull, which he resembles in the general fi- 
gure of the body, head, and legs ; it is co- 
vered all over with a thick coat of long 
hair ; the head is rather short, crowned with 
two smooth round horns, which, tapering 
from the root upwards, terminate in sharp 
points ; they are arched inwards, bending 
towards each other, but near the extremi- 
ties are a little turned back. 
They are a very valuable property to the 
tribes of itinerant Tartars, called Duckba, 
who live in tents, and tend them from place 
to place : they at the same time afford their 
herdsmen an easy mode of conveyance, a 
good covering, and wholesome subsistence. 
They are never employed in agriculture, 
but are extremely useful as beasts of bur- 
den ; for they are strong, sure-footed, and 
carry a great weight. Tents and ropes are 
manufactured of their hair; and among 
the humbler ranks of herdsmen, caps and 
jackets are made of their skins. Their tails 
are esteemed throughout the East, as far as 
luxury and parade have any influence on 
the manners of the people. In India no 
man of fashion ever goes out, or sits in form 
at home, without two chowrabadars, or 
brushers, attending him, each furnished 
with one of these tails mounted on silver or 
ivory handles, to brush away the flies. The 
Chinese dye them of a beautiful red, and 
wear them as tufts to their summer bonnets. 
The yak is the most fearful of animals, and 
very swift; but when chased by men or 
dogs, and finding itself nearly overtaken, it 
will face its pursuers, and hide its hind parts 
in some bush, and wait for them ; imagining 
that if it could conceal its tail, which was 
the object they were in search of) it would 
escape unhurt. 
Bos caffer, or Cape ox, (having the 
horns very broad at the base, then spread- 
ing downwards, next upwards, and at the 
tips curving inwards) ; inhabits the interior 
parts of Africa, north of the Cape of Good 
Hope, and is greatly superior in size to the 
largest English ox. It is of a very strong 
and masculine form, with a fierce and male- 
volent aspect. Its colonr is a deep cin- 
ereous brown ; the hair on the body is ra- 
ther short, but that on the head and breast 
very long, coarse, and black, hanging down 
P p 2 
