The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-25
AUROCHs AND BISON.
Strange European Cattle, Now virtu-
ally Extinct.
From the London Standard.

From the London Standard
DR.. Nehring's recent description of
horn of the aurochs, or urus, discovered
in a Pomeranian peat bog, has again at
tracted attention to form of big game
which, since history began, has disap-
| peared before the hunter. Popular report
| often confuses two species of wild cattle.
| the one called in science Bcs primgenius,
| and the other the European bison. Their
remains are found under similar circum-
| stances in caverns and various superficial
! deposits, the bison also occurring in the
| forest bed of Norfolk, and having there
| fore, reached this Part of Europe before
the so-caled glacial epoch began. But
| while the aurochs is extinct the bison sur
| wives, leading a protected existence in
| certain forests of Lithuania, but being
really wild in the Caucasus. Once, how
/ ever, 1t roamed over Europe, and in Asia
| extended as far as Siberia, while its bones
! have been found in the frozen soil Of
Escholtz Bay, in Alaska.
These animals were not uncommon in
Central Europe in the sixteenth century,
| and about that time were regarded as
royal game in Poland, not less than sixty
| being killed in one great hunt 50 late as
| 1852. Even then, however, they appear
| to have been restricted to Lithuania,
where, as we have said, they still sur
vive, though in greatly diminished num-
q general resemblance to, but Is specif-
ca ly different Fl, m, his American cousin,
| named after that continent, which also
has almost disappeared from the earth
| during the last fifty or sixty years. The
American beast wandered over the prai-
ries. while the European species is a lover
| Of the forest. But the aurochs, or urus,
was a very different creature, and must
| have been not very unlike one of The long
| horned oxen which may be seen to-day
| in the lowlands Of Italy. 1t was a large
| and formidable beast, its horns had a
! slight double curvature, and attained to
a great length, for skulls have been found
in which the bony cores measure forty
| two inches from tip to tip. That, as Mr..
| Lydekker states in the pages of 1.-THE
Royal Natural History" would mean that
| the points of the sheaths the horns
proper, must have been rather over four
| feet apart. and greater length than this
was sometimes attained. They appear to
have been occasionally used as drinking
| cups, and such q horn of ale" would
| not be quickly drained.
The aurochs is related to certain Asiatic
| forms of oxen, and makes its appearance
| in Europe, If not at the same epoch, only
a little later than the bison, but was not
less widely spread, for it wandered as far
| north as Scandinavia and Russia, and
| southwark to Italy, Greece and even AL
geria. 1t has been found In Palestine,
where some writers have identified 1t with
| the reem or unicorn of the Authorized
Version; but how far eastward it extend
ed has not yet been ascertained. Its re-
| mains, especially in caves, are associated
with the wind horse. the brown and the
grizzly bears. the lion, the spotted hyena,
two species both of rhinoceros and of ele-
| plant, and a number of other animals,
some still living in Europe. Such as were
good for food man hunted; such as were
eaters of flesh, perhaps, some times hunted
him. A savage armed with nothing bet
| ter than rudely Clipped spearheads must
have often Jared badly when the lion was
| roaring after his prey, and at first the
struggle for existence between man and
the wild beasts must have been protracted
| and severe. But that he could Stay the
| aurochs we learn from remains found at
| Laugerie-Basse. These cave men of Cen
trail France though they were not so far
advanced in mechanical arts as to smooth
their weapons of stone, could carve bones
or antlers into shapes of animals, or In
else on them outline sketches, rude, but
fairly accurate. One such shows an au-
rochs quietly feeding, while a hunter, who
| has crept up behind him, is Just throwing
his spear. The form of the horns identt-
fes the animal, but that the bison was
| also known is proved by an equally char
| acteristi6 sketch of two heads on a sec
| ond carving. On the other side OF IL a
hunter is attacking a wild horse.
/ NoOAAC vi the Viz Bftut WHICH THESE early
| races of men hunted apparently vanished
from Europe almost simultaneously with
| them, for what was their fate and where
on earth they are now represented I'M
less by the Esquimaux, we cannot tell,
The next race, at any rate neolthic folk,
| as they are now called, whose weapons
and tools. made after more elaborate pat
terms, are often polished, seem to have
| come as conquerers. Perhaps the new
| corners foresaw that the aborigines might
give rise to inconvenient racial questions,
so, as Tacitus says they made a soil
tude and called it peace" But with the
older race several of the larger wild ami
mails disappeared, at any rate from the
British Isles If not from Northwestern
Europe-the mammoth and the woolly
rhinoceros, the hippopotamous, the sabre
toothed tiger. which had already become
extremely rare II not extinct; perhaps
also, the lion and hyena.
| They may have disappeared from our
islands because a general sinking of the
land replaced many broad, grassy or tree
clad plains with shallow seas and COM
pleted the severance of Britain from the
Continent This change and the incoming
of a better armed and more cunning race
of hunters may have turned the scale
distinctly in mans favor. Still some big
game remained for the Britain of that
age was very different from THAI which
we inhabit. No towns, only scattered viii
lagos; large districts of forest and marsh
land, such as were me backwoods OF
Canada, and still are some parts of Cen
trail Africa. Here wild animals found
ample protection. and had no more to
dread from man than from the wolf or
the lynx. So the reindeer remained, at
any rate in the north; perhaps, also, the
so-called Irish elk, together with the
bison and the aurochs Some thirty years
ago skull of the latter was dug out OF
a Cambridgeshire fen, and in II a stone
axe was found embedded IN the forehead.
IL was broken off short, apparently
snapped by striking against the bony
orbit of the eye, as II the animal had