time, and they give milk all the year. These milch cows form a part of the riches of Holland, from which place they export butter and cheese to a considerable amount; they give as much milk again as French cows, and six times as much as those of Barbary. In England, Ireland, Holland, Switzerland, and other northern countries, they salt and smoke the flesh of the ox in large quantities, both for the use of the navy and for the advantage of commerce. They export also from those countries large quantities of leather; the hide of the ox, and that of the calf, serving for an infinite number of uses. The fat is also very useful. The dung of the ox is the best manure for light dry soils. The horn of this animal was the first instrument ever made use of for drinking or augmenting sounds; the first transparent matter ever used for windows and lanthorns. It is now softened to make boxes, combs, and a thousand other things. But I must conclude, for, as I said before, Natural History finishes where the History of the Arts begin. SUPPLEMENT. Oxen are very numerous in Tartary and Siberia; and at Tobolski black cattle abounds. In Ireland I formerly remarked that both _oxen_ and cows were without horns; but this I find applies only to the southern part, where there is either scarcely any grass, or it is very bad which gives strength to my position, that horns arise from a superabundance of nourishment. Adjacent to the sea the Irish boil their fish down extremely soft, with which they feed their cows, and of which they are very fond; and it is said the milk has not the smallest disagreeable smell or taste therefrom. In Norway both cows and _oxen_ are very diminutive; but on the Norwegian coast they are bigger probably owing to their having better pasture, and being allowed to range at perfect freedom; for they are left entirely to themselves without any guides, unless the rams may be so called who accompany them in winter and who scrape the snow from the ground both for themselves and companions, to get at the grass. Living in this wild state they sometimes grow very fierce, and are only to be caught by means of ropes. _Engraved for Barr's Buffon_ [Illustration: FIG. 22. _Ram_] [Illustration: Fig. 23. _Ewe_]