down, that they are almost pendent. It even appears, that we must divide this first kind of bisons, or hunched oxen, into two secondary kinds; the one very large, and the other very small. Both have soft hair, and a hunch on the back. This hunch does not depend on the conformation of the spine, nor on the bones of the shoulder; it is nothing but an excrescence, a kind of wen, a piece of tender flesh, as good to eat as the tongue of an ox. The wens of some oxen weigh about forty or fifty pounds; others have them much smaller. Some of these oxen have also prodigious horns for their size. There is one in the French king's cabinet, which is three feet and a half in length, and seven inches in diameter at the base. Many travellers affirm, they have seen them of a capacity sufficient to contain fifteen and even twenty pints of water.

On the contrary, all the northern countries of Africa and Asia, and Europe entirely, comprehending even the adjacent islands, to the Azores, are only inhabited by oxen without a hunch, who derive their origin from the aurochs.

Every part of South America is inhabited by oxen without hunches, which the Spaniards, and other Europeans, have successively transported. These oxen are multiplied, and are only become smaller in these countries. Thus the wild and the tame ox, the European, the Asian, the American, and the African ox, the bonasus, the aurochs, the bison, and the zebu, are all animals of one and the same species; who, according to the climates, food, and different usage they have met with, have undergone all the variations we have before explained. The ox, as the most useful animal, is also the most universally dispersed. He appears ancient in every climate, tame among civilized nations, and wild in desert or unpolished countries. He supports himself by his own strength when in a state of nature, and has never lost the qualities which are useful to the service of man. The young wild calves, which are taken from their mothers in India and Africa, have, in a short time, become as tractable as those which are the issue of the tame kind, and this natural conformity is another striking proof of the identity of the species.

The characters by which the strongly marked group of animals thus associated together, are distinguished from the neighboring tribes, are, like most of those which serve to subdivide the great family of the ruminants, of a very subordinate description. Their horns are common to both sexes, simple in their form, curved outwards at the base and upwards towards the point; and supported internally, by long processes arising from the skull, having cavities within them communicating with the frontal sinuses, which are largely developed. Their muzzle is of large size; the skin along the middle of the neck and chest forms a pendulous dewlap of greater or less extent; and the general robustness of their make is strikingly contrasted with the lightness and elegance of form of some of the nearly related groups.

There can be little doubt that the zebu, or Indian ox, is merely a variety of the common ox, although it is difficult to ascertain the causes by which the distinctive characters of the two races have been in the process of time gradually produced. But whatever the causes may have been, their effects rapidly disappear by the intermixture of the breeds, and are entirely lost at the end of a few generations.

This intermixture and its results would

alone furnish a sufficient proof of identity of origin; which consequently scarcely requires the confirmation to be derived from the perfect agreement of their internal structure, and of all the more essential particulars of their external conformation. These, however, are not wanting; not only is their anatomical structure the same, but the form of their heads, which affords the only certain means of distinguishing the actual species of this genus from each other, presents no difference whatever. In both the forehead is flat, or more properly slightly depressed; nearly square in its outlines, its height being equal to its breadth; and bounded above by a prominent line, forming an angular protuberance, passing directly across the skull between the basis of the horns. The only circumstances, in fact, in which the two animals differ, consist in a fatty hump on the shoulders of the zebu, and in the somewhat more slender and delicate make of its legs.

Numerous breeds of this humped variety, varying in size from that of a large mastiff dog, to that of a full grown buffalo, are spread, more or less extensively, over the whole of southern Asia, the islands of the Indian Archipelago, and the eastern coast of Africa, from Abyssinia to the Cape of Good Hope. In all these countries, the zebu supplies the place of the

ox, both as a beast of burthen and as an article of food and domestic economy. In some parts of India, it executes the duties of the horse also; being either saddled and ridden, or harnessed in a carriage, and performing in this manner journeys of considerable length with tolerable celerity. Some

of the older writers speak of fifty or sixty miles a day, as its usual rate of travelling; but the more moderate computation of recent authors does not exceed from twenty to thirty. Its beef is considered by no means despicable, although far from equalling that of the European ox. The hump, which is chiefly composed of fat, is reckoned the most delicate part. As might naturally be expected from its perfect domestication and wide diffusion, the zebu is subject to as great a variety of colors as those which affect the European race. Its most common hue is a light ashy gray, passing into a cream color or milk white; but it is not unfrequently marked with various shades of red or brown, and occasionally it becomes perfectly black. Its hump is sometimes elevated in a remarkable degree, and usually retains its upright position; but sometimes it becomes half pendulous, and hangs partly over towards one side. Instances are cited, in which it had attained the enormous weight of fifty pounds. A distinct breed is spoken of as common in Surat, which is furnished with a second hump. Among the other breeds, there are some which are entirely destitute of horns; and others, which have only the semblance of them, the external covering being unsupported by bony processes, and being consequently flexible and pendulous.

The whole of the breeds are treated with great veneration by the Hindoos, who hold it sinful to deprive them of life under any pretext whatever. But they do not, in general, scruple to make the animals labor for their benefit;

although they consider it the height of impiety to eat of their flesh. A select number are, however, exempted from all services, and have the privilege of straying about the towns and villages, and of taking their food wheresoever they please, if not sufficiently supplied by the pious contributions of the devotees who impose on themselves this charitable office.

THESE animals have a pisciform body, terminated by a caudal appendage, cartilaginous and horizontal; two anterior extremities formed like fins, having the bones which form them, flattened and very short; head joined to the body by a very short, thick neck; two pectoral or abdominal mammæ; ears with very small external openings; brain large; pelvis and bones of the posterior extremities represented by two rudimentary bones lost in the flesh.

THE MANATI.1

THIS animal may be indiscriminately called the last of beasts, or first of fishes. It cannot be called a quadruped; nor can it entirely be termed a fish. It partakes of the nature of the fish by its two feet or hands; but the hind legs, which are almost wholly concealed, in the bodies of the seal and morse, are entirely wanting in the manati. Instead of two short feet and a small narrow tail, which is placed in a horizontal direction in the morse, the manati has only a thick tail, spread out broad like a fan. Oviedo seems to be the first author who has given any sort of history or description of the manati; he says, "it is a very clumsy and misshapen animal, the head of which is thicker than that of an ox; the eyes small, and the two feet or hands are placed near the head, for the purpose of swimming. It has no scales, but is covered with a skin, or rather a thick hide, with a few hairs or bristles. It is a peaceable animal, and feeds upon the herbage by the river sides, without entirely leaving the water, swimming on the surface of it to seek its food. The hunters practise the following method to take the manati; they row themselves in a boat or raft as near the animal as possible, and dart a very strong lance into it, to the end of which a very long cord is fastened. The manati feeling itself wounded, instantly swims

Manatus Americanus, DESM. The genus Manatus has two upper incisors; no canines; eighteen upper and eighteen lower molars. The incisors exists only in the fœtus, and the adults have only thirty-two teeth, four of the molars falling out in early age; molars with two transverse cushions on their crown; head not distinct from the body; eyes very small; tongue oval; vestiges of nails on the margin of the pectoral fins six cervical vertebræ; sixteen pair of thick ribs; mustaches composed of a bundle of very strong hairs, directed downwards, and forming on each side a kind of corneous tusk.

away, or plunges to the bottom; but the cord which holds the lance, has a cork or piece of wood fastened to the end of it, to serve as a buoy. When the animal begins to grow faint and weak through the loss of blood, he swims to shore; the cord is then wound up, and the animal drawn within arm's length of the boat, where they dispatch it in the water by strokes of the oar or lance. It is so very heavy, as to be a sufficient load for two oxen to draw; its flesh is excellent eating, and is eaten rather as beef than as fish. Some of these animals measure more than fifteen feet in length, by six feet in breadth. The body becomes narrower towards the tail, and then spreads gradually broader towards the end. As the Spaniards give the appellation of hands to the feet of quadrupeds; and as this animal has only fore feet, they have given it the name of manati, that is, an animal with. hands. The female has breasts placed forward, like those of a woman; and she generally brings forth two young ones at a time, which she suckles."

"The flesh and fat of this animal," says M. de Condamine, "have a great resemblance to veal. It is not, properly speaking, amphibious, since it never entirely leaves the water; having only two flat fins, close to the head, about sixteen inches long, and which serves the animal instead of arms and hands. It only raises its head out of the water to feed on the herbage by the sea-side. The eyes of this animal have no proportion to the size of its body; the orifice of its ears is still less, and only seems like a hole made by a pin. The manati is not peculiar to the Amazonian river; for it is not less common in the Oronoko. It is found, also, though less frequently, in the Oyapoc, and many other rivers in the environs of Cayenne, and the coast of Guiana, and probably in other parts."

The female of this animal, from the position of the breasts, probably gave rise among mariners, to the fable of the mermaid. Columbus, when he first saw these animals in the West Indies, called them sirens.

THE ROUND-TAILED MANATI1

THIS animal frequents most of the great African rivers, from Senegal to the Cape of Good Hope, and also many of the rivers on the eastern shore of South America. It is often seen in the Amazons, nearly a thousand leagues from its mouth. It prefers shallow waters near low land, and is a frolicsome creature, frequently leaping into the air to great heights. The natives of America are said frequently to tame it, and we are told that it delights in music. The female, when struck by the harpoon, seems insensible to her own sufferings, and only anxious to protect her young one, by taking it under her fins or feet. The round-tailed manati is about six feet

1 Manatus Senegalensis, DESM.