o the length of five or six inches. The eye was
very peculiar, being remarkably prominent, and "resembled a cup and ball,
thus enabling the animal to see on all sides with equal ease; the pupil was
small and oval, or rather a parallelogram with the ends cut off, and lying
transversely across the ball," A new and strange breed might probably have
been formed by careful breeding and selection from this animal.

I have often speculated on the probable causes through which each separate
district in Great Britain came to possess in former times its own peculiar
breed of cattle; and the question is, perhaps, even more perplexing in the
case of Southern Africa. We now know that the differences may be in part
attributed to descent from distinct species; but this will not suffice.
Have the slight differences in climate and in the nature of the pasture, in
the different districts of Britain, directly induced corresponding
differences in the cattle? We have seen that the semi-wild cattle in the
several British parks are not identical in colouring or size, and that some
degree of selection has been requisite to keep them true. It is almost
certain that abundant food given during many generations directly affects
the size of a breed.[211] That climate directly affects the thickness of
the {92} skin and the hair is likewise certain: thus Roulin asserts[212]
that the hides of the feral cattle on the hot Llanos "are always much less
heavy than those of the cattle raised on the high platform of Bogota; and
that these hides yield in weight and in thickness of hair to those of the
cattle which have run wild on the lofty Paramos." The same difference has
been observed in the hides of the cattle reared on the bleak Falkland
Islands and on the temperate Pampas. Low has remarked[213] that the cattle
which inhabit the more humid parts of Britain have longer hair and thicker
skins than other British cattle; and the hair and horns are so closely
related to each other, that, as we shall see in a future chapter, they are
apt to vary together; thus climate might indirectly affect, through the
skin, the form and size of the horns. When we compare highly improved
stall-fed cattle with the wilder breeds, or compare mountain and lowland
breeds, we cannot doubt that an active life, leading to the free use of the
limbs and lungs, affects the shape and proportions of the whole body. It is
probable that some breeds, such as the semi-monstrous niata cattle, an