THE OX. 
Ill 
HISTORY. 
treads the dog beneath him. He then tears his head loose, regardless of the wound, and crushes his enemy beneath his feet. 
These animals are eminently gregarious and migratory. They feed on the herbage of plains, and the sedgy plants of morasses 
and swamps. They are fond of salt, and travel vast distances to the saline springs, which yield this condiment: they swim with 
ease, crossing the most rapid rivers : they delight in coolness and moisture, bathing in pools and lakes during the heat of summer : 
in the wintei season they dig the snow with their feet, that they may reach the plants beneath. They inhabit the temperate parts 
of North America, congregating in herds, in the woods and vast plains and savannahs, where they feed. In summer they migrate 
northward, and then it is that they are seen in those prodigious herds that strike the traveller with wonder. The countless mul¬ 
titude seems to darken the plain, and stretch to the horizon. Captains Lewis and Claek, on one occasion, mention that the 
moving mass which they beheld could not be less than 20,000 in number. At another time, they saw a herd crossing the Missouri, 
which, though the river was a mile in breadth, stretched across it from side to side as thick as the animals could swim. 
The paths they make to the pools of fresh water or saline springs which they frequent, are often as numerous and trodden as 
the highways of a peopled country; and all travellers in the western countries speak with amazement of the traces of their num¬ 
bers. They retire to the boundless wilds of the interior before the progress of the settler, and from the persecution of the chase. 
Foimeily they were found to the eastward of the Apalachian Mountains, but they are now driven to the remoter wilderness to¬ 
wards the Ohio, the Missouri, and west of the Mississipi on the south. They are the subjects of incessant attack and pursuit by 
the Indian tribes, who feed upon their flesh, and make cloaks, sandals, and other fabrics, of their hides. They are often slaughtered 
in vast numbers together. Sometimes they are driven in crowds into ravines, and to the edges of precipices, where they are killed 
by lances and other missiles. Sometimes, the grass being set fire to, the herd is encompassed and thrown into confusion, and all 
other means which their savage persecutors can devise are employed to entrap and destroy them. This frightful carnage cuts off 
by degrees the sources of the future supply, and the time may come when this marvel of the American wilderness will be as rare 
to be seen as the Bison of the Lithuanian forests. 
Of the fitness of this creature for domestication no doubt can exist. He is the native Ox of America; and had the country 
been inhabited by civilized communities in place of tribes of savage hunters, a creature so formed by Nature for the service of man 
could not have remained unsubdued. He is far more docile than the Bison of Europe, and manifests no antipathy to the domestic 
race. There is reason to believe that he would breed with the latter, but how far the mixed progeny would be fruitful with one 
another, has not, it is believed, been determined. He is tamed with great facility, and manifests no ferocity. Numbers are some¬ 
times separated from the herd by the back-woodsmen of the United States, driven long journeys, and brought in perfectly subdued 
to the American towns to be disposed of to the inhabitants. It is said that they are often kept on the farms of Kentucky, where the 
objections to them are, that the cow yields a small quantity of milk, and of a musky flavour; and that she is restless, leaping the 
barriers intended to confine her, and enticing the other cattle to follow her to the woods. The flesh of the animal is reckoned 
good, and in an especial degree the tongue, and fleshy hump upon the shoulder. The hair has so much of the woolly character, 
that it may be woven into cloth, or formed into hats by the felting process : the skin is very thick, but too porous for leather, 
though, with the wool upon it, it forms a warm covering, used by the Indians for blankets and cloaks. But the chief value of 
the domesticated Bison, it may be believed, would be for the purposes of labour, for which his agility and the great strength of his 
shoulders seem peculiarly to adapt him. A farmer on the great Kenhawa, we are informed by Mr Bingley, broke a young 
Bison to the yoke; the animal performed his work to admiration, and the only fault his master had to find with him was, that his 
pace was too quick for the steer with which he was yoked. 
Beyond the range of the American Bison, and stretching into regions of everlasting ice, is the habitat of another species of 
Bison, suited to other conditions of temperature and food. The Musk Ox, Ovibos moschatus , first appears about the 60th degree 
of northern latitude, and thence is found to the very extremity of the American continent, wandering in search of food to the 
dreary islands beyond it during the brief space of the arctic vegetation. This creature is about the size of the little Ox of the 
most northerly Highlands of Scotland. He has no muzzle, or naked space around the nose and lips, like the Common Ox and 
Bison, but like the Sheep he is covered to the lips with hair; and hence the genus has been termed Ovibos , as partaking of the 
character of the Ox and the Sheep. His horns, broad at the base, covering the upper part of the forehead, and bending down¬ 
ward and then upward, enable him to defend himself against the Bear and the Wolf. To protect him from the cold, he is en¬ 
veloped from head to foot in a dense fur, consisting partly of hair and partly of wool. The long hair almost trails to the ground, 
and underneath is a thick coat of delicate wool, of which, fabrics like the finest silk may be formed. He has short muscular limbs 
and hoofs like those of the Rein-deer, and he is endowed with great activity, scaling the icy rocks of the country when pursued. 
He feeds partly on grasses and partly on lichens, and he is usually seen browsing in small herds or bands. His skin emits the 
strong odour of musk. Though suited, perhaps, to perform the same services as the Rein-deer, he has never been subjected to 
