The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-18
THE GIANT uRus.

THE LIANT UhtSs
 Classical readers who have not for gotten their Caesar may call to mind his descriptions of a gigantic species of OK which inhabited Gaul and perhaps other portions of Central Europe at the period of the Roman invasion. The following is, a translation quoted by Frank Caldwell of portion of cae- sar's Commentaries:
 There Is a third kind. consisting of those animals which are commonly called the urus. These are a little be- low the elephant in size. ana Q! the aP- Their speed and strength is uncqualed and they spare neither man not wild beast which they have espied: These, take in large pits and kill. The young men harden themselves in this kind of hunting; and those who have slain the horns in public as evidence of their skill and receive great praise Even when the urus Is taken very young 1t cannot become accustomed to men nor tanned. The size. shape and appearance of the horns of the urus differ from that of the horns of our oxen. The young hunters anxiously seek these ends with silver and use them as cups at their most elaborate feasts.'
 
 The language used by the great com mentator indicates that these wonder full animals were to be found in his day. less than two thousand years ago. though they have since become ex- tinct. While there may have been more or less exAggeration In the accounts of that period. it is certain that animals of the OK family and of immense size were living in Europe just prior to the beginning of the Christian era.
 Interest in this subject is revived by the return of MT. and Mrs Frank Cald- well from the Klondike, bringing with them bones and tusks of huge prehistor- ic animals which had been found by the miners in the frozen regions of Alaska. Among these relics is the well preserv- ed skull and horns of an animal which agrees remarkably with the "urus' de- scribed by Caesar. Some of the meas urements will show the size of the ani- nal. From tip to tip of the horns. measuring along the outside and across the skull. Is. six feet eight inches, ana from the points of the horns. which were curved inward at the top, the dis tance from point to point is four feet six inches. Judging from the present size 1t is estimated that when the animals were alive the diameter of the horn at the base was about eight inches. The distance between centers of the eye socket was seventeen inches and the diameter of the socket, four inches.
 These figures give a fair idea of the size of the great animal which be- longed to the same family as our do- nestle cattle of today. Just when and why they became extinct are ques- tions to which naturalists and geolo- gists do not offer a definite answer Judging from the conditions under which the remains were preserved they give the time of the animals disap- pearance at from twenty to fifty thous- and years ago. thus leaving quite margin between extremes. The remains are found beneath many feet of frozen earth, indicating vast period of time since they were buried It is also cer- tain that the urus was a contempo-
 
 elephant whose remains are found in the far North.
 What was the origin of these great beasts? and why did they survive in Europe up to a comparatively recent pe- riod? are perplexing questions for stu dents. One theory which cannot be proven or disproven is that at remote
 
 ing Asia and America at the point now occupied by Behring Straits, and that the great OK migrated thus from North ern Asia to North America, This Is not impossible, but why did these animals survive In Europe up to twenty centur- les ago and disappear in America hun dreds of centuries ago? About the only solution the naturalists can give Is that the present Alaskan country once enjoyed a comparatively mild cli- mate; that the urus. mammoth and other huge animals flourished there. and that at some remote period the country was entirely submerged by n mighty sheet of ice which destroyed all animal life. and that since then the earth has gradually accumulated un- til the country Is as we now find 1t. Some of the remains we are speaking of were found beneath forty or fifty feet of earth that is never thawed, and has in all probability been frozen sol- Idly from the time of the great ice age" as that far away period is some times called.
 But whatever opinions or specula- tions may be indulged in as to the orig in of these extinct animals. or as to why and when they were buried. the fact remains that the bones. horns, tusks and other portions of creatures not now known are found beneath the frozen earth in the coldest regions of North America. and that some of these remains are apparently identical with the giant OK described by Caesar So much Is at least fact
 
 The Presidents recent order to the effect that in future no man who is not