THE OX. 
XYll 
HISTORY. 
disappears with the first cross. In the year 1832, a bull and cow of the finer breed were exhibited at the Christmas Smithfield 
Show in London, under the name of Nagore cattle. The following account of them, derived from Mr Perkins, to whom they 
belonged, is given by Mr Youatt, in his valuable Treatise on Cattle, contained in the Library of Useful Knowledge. 
“ They were bred by Lieutenant-Colonel Skinner, at his farm at Danah, near Pokali, on the borders of the Bichaneer 
desert, 100 miles to the westward of Delhi. They are not Buffaloes, but of the highest breed of Indian cattle. They are used in 
India by the higher orders to draw their state carriages, and are much valued for their size, speed, and endurance, and sell at very 
high prices. These specimens arrived at Calcutta, a distance of 1400 miles, in January 1829, and were then something under six 
months old. They were sent as a present to Mr Wk)OD, who was then residing at Calcutta, and by whom they were presented to 
Mr Perkins. Colonel Skinner has a large stock of them, and six or seven beasts are always kept saddled to carry the military 
dispatches. They remain saddled three or four hours, and if not wanted in that time, fresh ones are brought to relieve their com¬ 
panions. They will travel with a soldier on their back fifteen or sixteen hours a-day, at the rate of six miles an hour. Their 
action is particularly fine, nothing like that of the English cattle, with the sideway circular action of their hind-legs; the Nagpore 
cattle bring their hind-legs under them in as straight a line as the Horse. They are very active, and can clear a five-barred gate 
with the greatest ease. Mr Perkins has a calf which has leaped over an iron fence higher than any five-barred gate; and the 
hull frequently jumps over the same fence in order to get at the water, and, when he has drunk his fill, leaps back again. The 
bull was in high condition when exhibited. He is employed in a light cart in various jobs about the farm. Sometimes he goes 
fore-horse in the waggon-team to deliver corn; he also drags the hush-harrow, and draws the light roller over the ploughed land. 
He is very docile and tractable when one man drives him and attends upon him, but he has now and then shown symptoms of 
dislike to others. He is fed entirely on hay, except that, when he works, a little bran is given to him, and in the turnip season, 
he is treated occasionally with a few slices of Swedes, of which he is very fond. He was at first very troublesome to shoe, and it 
was necessary to erect a break in order to confine him. He was unwilling to go into it for some time, but now walks in very con¬ 
tentedly. He is very fond of being noticed; and often, when he is lying down, if any one to whom he is accustomed goes and sits 
down upon him and strokes him over the face, he will turn round and put his head on their lap, and lie there contentedly as long as 
they please. The cow is at grass with the milch cows, and comes up with them morning and evening when they are driven to be 
milked.” * 
But the Ox extends to another vast division of the globe, when we may expect him to exhibit modifications dependent on the 
peculiar conditions under which he is placed, and which exert so great an influence on the development of animal forms. But a 
vast part of the African continent is yet untrodden by the foot of the naturalist, and we are left to draw our knowledge of its 
animals from the uncertain notices of travellers, often too much occupied with the dangers around them, to be able to afford us 
the details required. We know, however, that the Ox, under various modifications, abounds throughout those vast countries, is 
everywhere subjected to servitude, affords milk and flesh to the inhabitants, and assists them in their rude labours; but of the 
species or races, our knowledge is in a high degree imperfect. So far as we know, the Caucasian Ox prevails along all the countries 
on the Mediterranean, and a part of the shores of the Atlantic; but how much it occupies of the interior, travellers, the most 
observant, have failed to inform us. The same form appears in Southern Africa, in the races which are cultivated by the Hot¬ 
tentots, the Caffres, and other tribes stretching to the deserts of the interior. The oxen of these races are of small size, like those 
of the mountainous parts of Europe, and are possessed of great activity and power of endurance. 
But, in Africa, the Ox likewise presents itself under a different form, having the large hump of the Indian Zebu, but being 
distinguished from the latter animal by large light and spreading horns. This race appears in Abyssinia, whence it extends down 
the Nile to the tropic of Cancer, and perhaps beyond it, westward through the unexplored regions of the countries of the Negroes 
to the Niger, and southward again through 40° of latitude to the country of the Caffres. It thus seems to extend over nearly all 
the burning regions of the continent, and it is difficult to believe that an animal so diffused is not indigenous to the country which 
produces it. It may indeed he conjectured that it is the Asiatic Zebu, transported from the East to Western Africa. Though 
we have nothing to invalidate this opinion, it certainly seems to be a very violent hypothesis; and a more natural supposition is, 
that an animal occupying all the intertropical regions of Africa, is as proper to the country itself as the Zebu of India is to the 
countries of the East. Unfortunately, the accounts of travellers are not sufficiently precise to enable us to compare the Indian 
with the African Ox, and it is doubtful if a single specimen of the Humped Ox of Africa has been brought to Europe. 
Bruce, on entering Abyssinia by the mountain of Taranto, describes the bulls and cows as of exquisite beauty, as being com¬ 
pletely white, with large dewlaps hanging down to the knees, with heads, horns, and hoofs, completely well turned, with the horns 
e 
* Library of Useful Knowledge. 
