Mvtx.
K o u l a n .
O xen.
lerlty o f their motions, and the ikill o f their riders, are juftly
-dreaded by our troops.
T he banians are procured from Thibet, they are o f a middle
fize, thick, very ftrong, and generally pied. They are ufed in
the draft, but not for the faddle.
T he Emperor Akbar has conftantly twelve thoufand horfes
in his ftables, chiefly brought from foreign parts: numbers
are continually going out as prefents, and others coming in
to fupply their place. . . .
T he DJhikketaei, or wild mule, Hiß. Quad. i. N° 2, and the
Koulan, N° 3, or wild afs, may juftly be reckoned among the
animals o f India', they are both found within its borders, in
the vaft fandy defert o f Gobi. T he Koulans colledt towards autumn
in herds o f hundreds, and even thoufands, and direit
their courfe to the north o f India, to enjoy a warm retreat
during winter. Barboga, as quoted by Pallas, fays, that they
penetrate even to the mountains o f Malabar and Golconda.
Albulfazel, ii. 13, fpeaks of the vaft: bullpcks of Sher.eefabad,
in the lower part o f Bengal, of a milk white color; which, like
camels, will kneel down to be loaden, and will carry feventy
four maunds, or above eleven hundred pounds. I have a drawing
o f a very large red Indian ox, with a hunch on the ihoulder,
and ihort horns, which probably came from this province.
How favorable muft the rich plains o f India be to the increafe
o f cattle, which could, in 1791, fupply the Marquis Cornwallis
With the multitudes deftroyed, before and after his unavailing
victory of Seringapatam; yet could inftantly anfwer his demand
of
o f fix thoufand draft, and twenty thoufand carriage bullocks,
for the confumption o f the enfuing campaign.
I t is impoflible not to take notice of Mr. Ker's Bos Arnee, de- Bos Arne*.
fcribed in his 2d vol. of the Animal Kingdom, p. 747. I have
feen only the horns, which were in poffeffion o f Sir Joseph
Banks. They were incurvated into the exait form o f a
crefcent, and flood upright on the animal’s head. I forget their
length, but think it was between two or three feet; but Lnever
fliall forget that of the whole animal, which was met in a wood
in the country above Bengal, by a Britijh officer, who informs
us, that from the tip of .the horns to the ground, it muft have
been fourteen feet. Qyale portentum neque militarls, &e. 8ec.
It partook of the form of the horfe, bull, and deer, and was
very bold and daring. The figure of the horns is faithfully
given oppofite p. 747, and we are prefented with that o f the
whole animal, in vol. i. p. 295.
Buffaloes, N° 9, are ufed for the dairy. Mr. Daniell, in his Burr*«»«.
Vllth plate, gives a figure o f a loaden ox of a great fize, very
frequent in the neighborhood of Delhi. It has a great bunch
on the ffioulders, otherwife I ihould have fuppofed it to have
been the Buffalo, to which are attributed the vaft horns I have
feen in the Britijh Mufeum, which are fix feet fix inches long,
and will hold in the hollow five quarts of liquid*. They are
ftrait almoft to the ends, where they bend flightly. Such is
the exact form of thofe in Mr, Danieli’s animal; they point
nearly forward, diverging as they pafs the nofe. I fufpea that
thofe in the Britijh Mufeum belong to the ox fpecies.
Hilt. Quad, 1, p. 29.