142 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

was the father, or ancestor, ‘of such as live in tents, and of
such as have cattle.’ From the time when the family of
Noah issued from the ark, in every quarter of the earth
which his varied and multitudinous. descendants have cul-
tivated, the ox has been reared, as the most useful and im-
portant aid to the necessities of mankind.”

Tt has been generally thought that domestic cattle are
descended from the Indian and European buffalo, Boe Bu-
balus, though some naturalists are of opinion that the aur-
ochs, or wild cattle of Germany and Poland, have more
claim to this distinction. Baron Cuvier differs from both
these suppositions, and imagines that the present race of
cattle are identical with a species which is no longer to be
found in a wild state, but, like the camel, has been for
ages subjected to the power of man. Fossil remains of
this animal have been discovered, and the comparison of
these remaizis with the skeleton of the aurochs, the buffalo,
and the domestic ox, gave rise to the opinion of this cele-

brated naturalist.

' ‘There are many varieties of this useful animal in England
and other countries: in the islands and Highlands of Scot-
land they are small, and generally black; the Devonshire,
Leicestershire, and Alderney cattle are all noted for their