Buffon's Natural History. Volume 08 (of 10) / Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c

by comte de Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon

The bonasus is a wild ox of Pœonia, and is at least as big as a domestic ox, and of the same make; he is covered from the shoulders to the eyes with a long hair, like the mane of a horse; his voice is like the ox; his horns are short, and curved round the ears; his legs are covered with long hair, soft as wool, and his tail is small compared to his size, although in other respects it resembles that of the ox. Like the bull, he has the custom of pawing the ground with his feet; his hide is hard, his flesh is tender, and good. By these characters, which are all we can rely on from Aristotle, we see how near the bonasus approaches towards the bison. Every part, in fact, agrees, the shape of the horns excepted, but which, as we have already observed, greatly varies in animals, who are, notwithstanding, of the same species. We have seen such crooked horns, taken from an hunched ox of Africa, and we shall hereafter prove, that this hunched ox is no other than the bison. This we shall be able to confirm by the testimonies of ancient authors. Aristotle mentions the bonasus as an ox of Pœonia; and Pausanias, speaking of the Pœonian bulls, says, in two different parts of his works, that these bulls are bisons; he even expressly says, that the bulls of Pœonia, which he saw at the public games at Rome, had very long hair upon the breast, and about the jaws. In short, Julius Cæsar, Pliny, Pausanias, Solinus, &c. in speaking of wild oxen, mention the aurochs and the bison, but take no notice of the bonasus. It must, therefore, be supposed, that in less than four or five centuries the species of the bonasus has been lost, unless we allow that the names bonasus and bison indicate only the same animal.

6. The bison of America might come originally from the bison of Europe. We have already laid down the foundation of this opinion in our discourse on the animals of the two continents; they are the result of the experience of M. de la Nux, who has given much information on this subject. He has informed us, that the bisons, or hunched oxen, of India and Africa, copulate with the bulls and cows of Europe, and that the hunch is only an accidental character, which diminishes in the first generation, and disappears in the second or third. Since the bisons of India are of the same species as our oxen, and have, consequently the same origin, is it not natural to extend this organ to the bison of America? Every thing seems to concur in support of this supposition. The bisons appear to be originally of cold and temperate regions; their name is derived from the German language; the ancients say that they were found in that part of Germany which borders on Scythia; and there are now bisons in the north of Germany, in Poland, and in Scotland; they might, therefore, have passed into America, or even have come from thence, as they are animals common to the two continents. The only difference between the bisons of Europe and those of America is, that the latter are less. But even this difference is a new presumption that they are of the same species, for we have already remarked, that generally both domestic and wild animals, which have passed of themselves, or have been transported, into America, have, without any exception, diminished in size; besides, all the characters, even the hunch, and the long hairs at the hinder parts, are the same in the bisons of America and in those of Europe; thus we cannot refuse to regard them, not only as animals of the same species but also of the same race.

7. The urus, or aurochs, is the same animal as the common bull, in his wild and natural state. This position is clear, as the figure and constitution of the body of the aurochs is perfectly similar to that of our domestic bull. The aurochs is only larger and stronger, like every other animal who enjoys his liberty. The aurochs are still to be met with in some provinces of the north. The young aurochs have been taken from their mothers, and being reared, when of a proper age have copulated with the domestic bulls and cows, so that we cannot doubt but they are of the same species.

8. To conclude, the bison differs from the aurochs by accidental varieties only, and, consequently, is also of the same species as the domestic ox. The hunch, the length and quality of the hair, and the form of the horns, are the sole characters by which we can distinguish the bisons from the aurochs. But we have known the hunched oxen produce with the domestic kind; we likewise know, that the length and quality of the hair, in all animals, depend on the nature of the climate; and we have remarked, that in oxen, goats, and sheep, the form of the horns frequently varies. These differences, therefore, are not sufficient to establish two distinct species; and since our domestic oxen produce with the hunched oxen of India, we have reason to think they would copulate with the bison, or hunched ox of Europe. There are, in the almost innumerable varieties of these animals, in different climates, two primitive kinds, both of which have long continued in a natural state; the hunched ox, or bison, and the aurochs, or ox without an hunch. These kinds have subsisted till this present time, either in a wild or domestic state, and are scattered, or rather have been transported, into all the climates of the earth. All the domestic oxen without hunches have proceeded originally from the aurochs, and those with the hunch from the bison. To give a just idea of these varieties we shall make an enumeration of them as they are found in the different parts of the world.

To begin with the north of Europe; the few oxen and cows of Iceland are deprived of horns, although they are of the same kind as our oxen. The size of these animals is rather relative to the plenty and quality of pasture than to the nature of the climate. The Dutch fetch lean cows from Denmark, which fatten prodigiously in their rich meadows, and give a great deal of milk: these Denmark cows are larger than ours. The bulls and cows of the Ukraine, where there is excellent pasture, are said to be the biggest in Europe, and they are of the same kind as our oxen. In Switzerland, where the tops of the mountains are covered with an abundant and flourishing verdure, and which is solely reserved as food for the cattle, the oxen are nearly double the size of those in France, where commonly they are fed on the coarsest herbage, which is refused by horses. Bad hay, and leaves, are the common food of our oxen in winter, and in spring, when they should be refreshed, they are excluded from the meadows; they, therefore, suffer still more in that season than in winter, for they then have little or nothing given them in the stable, but are driven into the roads, into fallow fields, or into the woods, and are always kept at a distance from the fertile lands, so that they are more fatigued than fed; at last, in summer, they are permitted to enter the meadows, which are then stripped, and parched with heat and drought; there is not, therefore, a single season throughout the year in which these animals are amply or agreeably fed. This is the sole cause which renders them weak, poor, and small; for, in Spain, and in some cantons of the provinces of France, where there is good pasture, and solely reserved for the oxen, they are much stronger and larger.

In Barbary, and most part of Africa, where the ground is dry, and the pasture poor, the oxen are still smaller, the cows give much less milk than those in France, and the greatest part of them lose their milk when their calves are taken from them. They are the same in some parts of Persia, of Lower Ethiopia, and in Great Tartary, while in the same countries, and at very small distances, as in Calmuck Tartary, in Upper Ethiopia, and in Abyssinia, the oxen are a prodigious size. This difference, therefore, depends more on the plenty of their food than on the temperature of the climate. In the northern, temperate, and warm regions, we equally find, at very small distances, small or large oxen, according to the quantity and quality of the pasture, they are fed upon.

The breed of aurochs, or ox without a hunch, inhabits the cold and temperate zones, and is not much dispersed in the southern countries. On the contrary the breed of the bison, or hunched ox, occupies all the southern provinces. In the whole continent of India, in the eastern and southern islands of all Africa, from Mount Atlas to the Cape of Good Hope, we find no others but hunched oxen; it even appears, that this breed, which has prevailed in all the warm countries, has many advantages over the others; for, like the bison, of which they are the issue, their hair is softer, and more glossy than our oxen, who, like the auroch, are furnished but with little hair, of a harsh nature. These hunched oxen are also swifter, and more proper to supply the place of the horse[D]; at the same time they are less clumsy, stupid, and indolent than our oxen. They are more tractable, and sensible, have more of that intelligence which renders them useful; they are also treated with more care than our finest horses. The regard the Indians have for these animals is so great that it has degenerated into superstition, the last mark of blind respect. The ox, as the most useful animal, has appeared to them the most worthy of being revered; and they have made an idol of the object of their veneration, a kind of beneficent and powerful divinity; for we are desirous of rendering all we respect, great, and capable of doing much good, or much harm.

[D] At Surat, Persia, and in all the provinces of India, they are used for carrying burdens and drawing a kind of coaches, and by constant habit they acquire such a dexterity that few animals can outrun them. See Voyages della Valle, Owington, Mandelslo, Flacourt, Grosse, &c.

These hunched oxen vary perhaps more than ours in the colours of the hair, and the figure of their horns, the handsomest are all white, like the oxen of Lombardy. Some are destitute of horns, while others have them very much elevated, and others so bent down, that they are almost pendent. It even appears, that we must divide this first race of bisons, or hunched oxen, into two secondary kinds; the one large, and the other small, and this last is that of the zebu. Both of them are found nearly in the same climates, and are equally mild and easily managed; both have soft hair, and a hunch upon the back; this hunch 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 hunches of some oxen weigh from forty to fifty pounds, others have them much smaller. Some of these oxen have prodigious large horns; 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 that they have seen them, of a capacity sufficient to contain fifteen, and even twenty pints of water.