232 
OK THE O-EOaKAPHICAL 
tives, wliicli is probably also found in Borneo and Suma- 
tra, and appears scarcely to differ from the Gaour^ Bos 
frontalis, or Sylhetanus, of Bengal, of which it probably 
forms a variety.* As for Birds, we shall content our- 
^ A fact worthy of notice is, that the domestic Ox of the islands of 
the Straits belongs to a species totally different from this wild one. 
The first, which they name Carban, and which has returned to the wild 
state in Sumatra, is descended evidently from the Arni or Wild Buffalo 
of Hindustan ; this renders it probable, that the introduction of that 
buffalo into the Sunda Isles, remounts to the remote epoch from which 
we date the introduction of the culture of rice, which they are said also 
to have received from Hindustan. However this may be, the remarks 
which we have made prove that the study of the distribution of the do- 
mestic animals may serve to elucidate several obscure points in the his- 
tory of the human race, and that it may contribute to our knowledge of 
the state of civilization among the primitive inhabitants of Java, who 
are believed formerly to have played so important a part. (See the 
Travels of Crawftjrd, and the work of W, Voisr Humboldt, entitled 
Uber die Kawaisprache.) Another fact, no less curious than that of which 
we have spoken, is that the Italian Buffalo, brought into Europe in the 
middle ages, appears equally descended from the Arni, which is thus 
spread from China to Abyssinia, and Italy. These two facts proved, 
we obtain a very curious point of comparison for studying the influence 
of different climates upon these animals, which, in the European race, 
seems to be especially concentrated on the curvature of the horns, and 
on the cavities of the front, phenomena otherwise very common in do- 
mestic animals. As to the domestic Ox of the rest of Europe, which 
seems also to belong to the domestic race of Japan, and has been spread 
over almost every country of the earth, since the discovery of America, 
and the opening of the sea passage to India ; as to this Ox, I say, there 
is reason to believe, that it also came from India in the remotest ages ; 
the reasons are, 1 . That the Zebu, the most common domestic Ox in the 
continent of Asia, which is, at this day, transported as our horned cat- 
tle, sometimes to Java, and to other countries, belongs, without doubt, to 
the same species as our ox ; and it forms a variety produced by the influ- 
ence of climate in hot countries ; 2. That the Ox of the ancient Greeks 
and Romans appears to have been the same as our domestic cattle ; 
finally, That the only Buffalo which lives in Europe in a wild state forms 
a species totally different from our Ox, and that it approaches nearer to 
the Bison of North America. At least, in adopting the hypothesis that 
our horned cattle are sprung from a species now extinct, and denomi- 
nated Bos primigenus, we are compelled to seek a parent stock for our 
Ox among the wild species of India. I have long fixed my attention on 
the Gaour^ but not knowing, by dissection, any but the Javan race, I 
dare decide nothing ; and I advance this opinion solely with the object 
of fixing the attention of naturalists and of travellers on this interest- 
ing subject. It is said that there exists in Hindustan, in a wild state, 
a race of bastard Buffaloes, produced between the Gaour and the Jrni, 
The history of our domestic Bog may perhaps contribute to throw light 
