22 a BOS. 
with a good market. There Is a Angular and affeCting trait 
in the character of this animal, when a calf; and my feel¬ 
ings have feverely felt it. Whenever a cow bifon falls be¬ 
fore the murdering hand of the huntgrs, and happens to 
have a calf, the helplefs young one, far from attemping 
an efcape, flays by its fallen dam, with figns expreiftve of 
ftrong and aCtive natural affeftion. The dam thus fecured, 
the hunter makes no attempt on the calf, (knowing it to be 
unnecelfary,) but proceeds to cut up the. carcaie : then, 
laying it on his horfe, he returns towards home, followed 
by the poor calf, thus inftinCtively attending the remains 
of its dam. I have feen a Angle hunter ride into the town 
of Cincinnati, between the Miames, followed in this manner, 
and at the fame time, by three calves," who had loft their 
dams by this cruel hunter. 
“ Since I have expreffed a wifh to fee the bifon domef- 
ticated on the Englifti farms, I will mention a fact con¬ 
cerning it, within my own knowledge. A farmer, on the 
-great Kenhawa, broke a young bifon to the plough ; and, 
having yoked it with a fleer taken from his tame cattle, 
it performed to admiration. Enquiring of the man whe¬ 
ther he had any fault to And with the bifon, he anfwered, 
there was but one objection to it: the ftep of the bifon 
was too quick for that of the tame fleer. “ My friend” 
faid I, “ the fault lies hot in the bifon, but in the fleer: 
what you term a fault in the former, is really an advantage 
on its fide.” Till this moment, the man had laboured 
under one of thole clouds of prejudice but too common 
among farmers. He had taken the ox of his father’s farm 
as the unit whence all his calculations were to be made, 
and his conclufions drawn ; it was his unchangeable ftan- 
dard of excellence, whether applied to the plough or the 
draught. No looner was my obl'ervation uttered, than 
conviction flalhed on his mind, he acknowledged the fu- 
periority of the bifon. But there is another property in 
which the bifon far furpaffes the ox: his ftrength. Judg¬ 
ing from the extraordinary Aze of his bones, and the depth 
and formation of his cheft, I fliould not think it unrea- 
fonable to alfign nearly a double portion of ftrength to this 
powerful inhabitant of the foreft. Reclaim him, and you 
gain a capital quadruped for the draught and for the plough : 
his activity peculiarly lits him for the latter, in preference to 
the ox.” 
3. The granting bull, a di ft inch fpecies, which from 
Linnams has received the name of bos grunniens ; by Buf- 
fon it is denominated the cow of Tartary ; Bell, in his 
Travels, mentions it under the name of bubal ; and Mr. 
Pennant charaCferifes it by the epithet of grunting, becaule 
it grunts like a hog. It has a fliort head, a broad nolle, 
and thick hanging lips. His ears are large, covered ex¬ 
ternally with coari'e briftly hairs, and pointing downwards, 
but not pendulous. His horns are fliort, {lender, round, 
upright, and {harp-pointed, and bent inwards; they are 
remote from each other at the bafes. and the hair forms 
a long curling turf between them. The whole body is 
covered with long hair, much like that of an he-goat ; 
and of fo conftderable a length on the inferior part of the 
body, as to cover half the legs. His hoofs are large ; 
upon each of the hinder feet there are two tufts of hair, 
one before, the other behind ; on each of the fore feet 
there is only one tuft, which is placed behind. The flioul- 
ders are loaded with a bunch. The tail is long and bufhv. 
This animal is commonly black all over the body, except 
on the front, the mane, the ridge on the back, and the 
tail: thefe parts are white. The horns of the tame ani¬ 
mals of this fpecies have been obferved to vary in colour, 
from red to black ; and are fometimes white as ivory. Some 
have no horns, but fo thick a frontal bone, that it is very 
difficult to knock them down with an axe. The Aze of the 
grunting bull is differently reprefented by different writers. 
The Ruffian natttralifts, who have of late examined fome 
individuals of this fpecies, that were conveyed young from 
Siberia, and brought up in confinement, reprefent them as 
nearly of the fame Az e with a common domeftic cow ; but 
Marco Polo and Rubruquis, travellers from the fouth- 
weft of Europe, who ▼lilted Tartary in the thirteenth cen¬ 
tury, as well as Mr. Bogle, an Englifli traveller, who 
lately obferved thefe animals in Thibet, deferibe them as 
conftderably larger. Nay, Marco Polo (but he delights 
in wonder) tells, that he faw fome of thefe animals, in a 
wild ftate, little inferior in Aze to elephants. Bell repre- 
fents thole which he faw, in a tame ftate, among the Tar¬ 
tars near the l'ource of the River Tomm, as let's than the 
aurochs. A tail of one of thefe creatures preferred in 
the Briiiffi mufeum, is not lets than Ax feet long ; and, 
as they are ufually dilineated with the tail not reaching to 
the grotind, it may be fafely inferred, that the individual 
to which that tail belonged was probably much larger 
than the common cow. The voice of thefe animals is re¬ 
markable ; inftead of lowing, they grunt like a hog. In 
their manner they are ferocious; and, though lufceptible 
of domeftication, they retain, even in a tame ftate, their 
natural ferocity. When red or other gaudy colours ftrike 
their eyes, they are inftantly agitated with fury ; their 
eye-balls glare ; they raife and move their tails ; and even 
ffiake the whole body. The wild breed, denominated, bit- 
cha, are very dangerous. If the hunter only wounds one 
of thefe, without killing him on the fpot, he turns and 
purfues the affailant; and, if he overtakes him, raifes him 
on his horns, and toffes him to death. The grunting bull 
refufes not to copulate with our common cow. Marco 
Polo relates, that, when he viftted Tartary, this half-breed 
was yoked in the plough, and employed in bearing bur¬ 
dens. Even the genuine breed were fo tame as to i'ubmit 
to draw the waggons of the wandering Tartars. The 
owners ufed to dilarm them by cutting off the tops of their 
horns. The ftomach of the grunting bull- is faid to afford 
a bezoar highly efteemed by the nations of the Eaft; but 
the tail is ftill more valuable. It is one of the chief arti¬ 
cles of commerce which Thibet affords. Mounted on a. 
ftlver handle, it forms the chowraw or fly-brufli, fo necel- 
fary, and fo generally ufed, in India. People of faffiion, 
both when they walk” abroad, and when they appear in ce¬ 
remony at home, are conftantly attended by two fervants, 
with bruffies of this kind, called cho’wrabadars , whofe bu- 
finefs is to drive away the flies. The tail of this animal 
is fattened, as an ornament, to the ear of the elephant. 
The Chinele adorn their bonnets with tufts of the hair, 
dyed red. ./Elian defcribes this animal as a native of In¬ 
dia, under the name of poephagus. He reprelents it as lar¬ 
ger in Aze than a horfe, poffeffed of a thick tail confiding 
of very ftne hairs, amazingly fwift, and extremely timid. 
Its tail, he farther tells us, was ufed as an ornament by 
the Indian ladies; and fo fenftble was the animal of the 
value of its tail, that, when purfued, and nearly overta¬ 
ken, it ufed to hide -its hinder parts in fome buffi, and face 
its purfuers; imagining, that when the part for which 
they chiefly valued it was concealed, they would pafs with¬ 
out injuring it. The Indian hunters, according to this 
writer, ufcdtoffioot this animal with poifoned arrows; and, 
neglecting the carcafe, took only the hide and tail. 
4. The mofehatus, or mulk-bull, fo denominated from its 
ftrong fmell of mufk. Its horns very nearly join at the 
bafe : as they rife, they bend inwards and downwards for 
a great part of their length, but near their termination turn 
outwards. Near the bafe, the horn meafures two feet 
round; it tapers towards its extremity, and is fliarp at the 
point. Meafured along the curvature, its length is only 
two feet. The head and body of this animal are covered 
all over with dark red Alky hairs. Its ffioulders rife in a 
lump ; and its legs and tail are very fliort : it is not fo tall 
as a deer; but its body is more bulky. The horns of the 
cow are placed exactly on the ftdes of the head ; they are 
of a whitiffi colour; the fpace between Them is nine 
inches; the length of the horn is thirteen inches and a 
half; at the bafe it is eight inches and a half round ; it is 
bent the fame way as that of the bull. The ears are three 
inches long, and ftand ereCt; they are {lender and even, 
fharp at the points, but broad in the middle; they are 
covered with a thick lining of duffiy hair, marked with a 
•white. 
