The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-05-20
AURoCHs AND BISON.
Curious Cattle In Europe Now Vir-
taally Extinct.

AUROCHS AND BlSON.
Curious Cattle In Europe Now Vir'
tnally Extinct.
From the London Standard.)
DR. Nehring's recent description OF {
horn of the aurOchs, or urus. discovered
in Pomeranian peat bog, has again at
tracted attention to a 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 Bos primigenius
and the other the European bison. TheiI
remains are found under similar circum-
stances in caverns and various superficial
deposits. the bison also occurring in the
forest beds of Norfolk, and having, there
fore, reached this part of Europe befor-
the so-called glacial epoch began. But
while the aurochs is extinct the bison sur
wives leading protected existence in GER
tain forests of Lithuania, but being really
wild in the Caucasus. Once, however, II
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
killed in one great hunt as late as 1852.
Even then. however, they appear to have
been restricted to Lithuania, where. as we
have said. they still survive. though in
greatly diminished numbers. Bison Bonas-
sus or Europaeus bears general resem-
blance to. but is specifically different from.
his American cousin, named after that
continent, which also has almost disap-
peared from the earth during the last fifty
or sixty years. The American beast wan
dered over the prairies, while the Euro
pean species is lover OF the forest Bu:
the aurochs, or urus, was very differen;
creature, and must have been not very u:.-
like one of the long horned oxen which
may be seen today in the lowlands of
Italy. 1t was a large and formidable
beast; its horns had slight 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 a greater length than
this was sometimes attained. They ap-
pear to have been occasionally used as
drinking cups, and such horn Of ale"
would not be quickly drained
The aarochs IS related to certain Asiatic
forms OF oxen, and makes its appearance
in Europe II not at the same epoch, only
a little later than the bison, but was not
less widely spread, for 1t wandered as far
north as Scandinavia and Russia, and
southwark to Italy, Greece, and even
Algeria 1t has been found In
Palestine. where some writer's have identi-
fed it with the reem or unicorn OF the
Authorized Version; but how far east
~ ovtopdad try vet hpen aEcer-
tanned Its rer.ains. especially in caves.
are associated with the wild horse, the
brown ard the grizzly bears. the lion, the
spotted hyena, two species both OF
rhinoceros and Of elephant, and num-
Der Of other animals some still in Europe.
Such as were good for food man hunted;
such as were eaters o! flesh, perhaps, some
times hunted him. A savage armed with
nothing better than rudely Clipped spear
heads 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 pro-
tracted and severe. But that he could STAY
the aurochs we learn from remains found
at Laugerie Basse. These cave men of
Central France, though they were not so
far advanced in mechanical arts as 10
smooth their weapons of stone, could carve
bones or antlers into shapes OF animals,
or incise on them outline sketches, rude,
but fairly accurate. One such shows an
aurochs quietly feeding. while hunter,
who has crept up behind him, is just
throwing his spear. The form Of the
horns Identifies the animal, but that the
bison was also known Is proved by an
equally characteristic sketch of two heads
on second carving. On the other side OF
it hunter is attacking wild horse.
Some of the big game 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 unless
by the Esquimaus, we cannot tell. The
next race at any rate. the neolithic folk,
az they are now called. whose weapons and
tools, made after more elaborate patterns,
are often polished. seem to have come as
conquerors. Perhaps the newcomers fore
saw that the aborigines might give rise
to inconvenient racial questions. SO. as
Tacitus says, they made a solitude. and
called II peace" But with the older race
several OF the larger wild animals disap-
peared, at any rate from the British Isles
il not from Northwestern Europe-the
mammoth and the woody rhinoceros, the
the sabre toothed tiger
which had already become extremely rare
If not extinct; perhaps, also, the lion ard
hyena
They may have disappeared from our
islands because a general sinking OF the
land replaced many broad. grassy or tree
clad pIa;ns 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 dis
tinctly in mans favor. Still, some big
game remained. for the Britain of that
age was very different from that which
we inhabit No towns, only scattered vii
lagos; large districts Of forest and marsh
land. such as were the backwOods of Can
ada. and still are some parts of Central
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
Some thirty years ago skull
of the latter was dug out of a Cambridge
shire fer. and in it stone axe was found
embedded in the forehead. 1t was broken
off short, apparently snapped by striking
against the bony orbit of the eye, as If
the animal had been struck by blow de-
Ivered from one side.
A RARE PICTURE OF CROMWELL.
An Old Engraving of the Great Pro-