nd it is also less
fierce in its disposition than the latter.

Next to the gayal is the _Gam_--also a forest-dwelling ox, of large
size; and, like the other, browsing upon the leaves and twigs of trees.

The gam inhabits several forest-covered mountains in Central India,
where it is only found wild. Attempts have been made to domesticate it,
but without success--since it is both a shy and fierce animal; so much
so that even the calves will not live in captivity!

Another Indian ox is the _Takin_, which inhabits the country of the
Kamptis, in the eastern ranges of the Himalayas, and about which there
is a dispute among naturalists, as to whether _it is an ox_!

We conclude our sketch with the _Anoa_, which belongs to Celebes--a
small species bearing some resemblance to the antelopes; and the
_Banting_ or _Sumatran Ox_, a native of Java, Borneo, and also, as its
second name denotes, of the Island of Sumatra.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

SHEEP.

The Sheep is one of the animals which man has subjected to his use; and
one, too, of primary importance in the domestic economy of almost every
civilised nation. Like the horse, dog, cat, ox, and pig, it has assumed
the greatest possible variety. Many naturalists have treated these
varieties as species; but those writers of greatest authority agree in
considering all the domestic breeds as having originated from one common
stock; and it would be idle here to speculate upon this question.

Of the _tame sheep_ there are not less than forty very distinct kinds,
besides numerous varieties of each of these kinds! These, of course,
are distributed among many nations, and exhibit a very great difference
in point of size and general appearance. Some are without horns, while
others have these appendages very large, and of eccentric shape; some
are covered with long crisp wool; others have the wool lank and
straight; while still others have no wool at all, but instead a coat of
hair resembling that of a spaniel or Newfoundland dog! But, besides
these distinct kinds, as already stated, there are numerous varieties of
each kind. For instance, the common sheep of England is itself branched
out into quite as many as twenty breeds, each of which has a name of its
own, and differs from all the others in many essential characteristics.

Leaving the common sheep of our own country, we shall say a few words of
some of the more noted kinds that are in the possession of different
nations ab