42 ORIGINAL AETICLES. 



Instead of the Elepliaut and Eliuioceros we find in the later or 

 f«eeond stone period, in that namely of the Kjokkenmbdding and 

 " Pfahlbauten," the Urns and Bison, the Elk and the Eed deer already 

 installed as monarchs of the forests. The latter indeed, with the 

 Boar, appears to have been very frequent, and to have formed a most 

 important article of food to the Lake-dwellers. The Urns, or great 

 fossil Ox is now altogether extinct. It was mentioned by Caesar, 

 who describes it as being little smaller than an elephant. (Hi sunt 

 magnitudiue panlo inti-a elephantos, specie et colore et figura tauri.) 

 According to Herberstem, it stUl existed in Switzerland during the 

 sixteenth centuiy, soon after which, however, it must have become 

 extinct. 



The Aurochs, or European Bison seems to have disappeared from 

 Western Europe even earHer than the Urus. There is no liistorical 

 record of its existence in England or Scandinavia. In Switzerland 

 we cannot trace it later than the tenth centui'y, but it is men- 

 tioned in the " Niebelungen Lied," of the twelfth century, as occur- 

 ring in the Forest of Worms, and ia Prussia the last was killed iu 

 the year 1775. At one period indeed, it appears to have inhabited 

 almost the whole of Europe, much of Asia, and part even of Ame- 

 rica, but at present it is confined in Europe, to the imperial forests in 

 Lithuania, where it is preserved by the Emperor of Kussia, while, 

 according to Nordmann and Yon Baer, it still exists in some parts 

 of Western Asia. 



We have no notice of the existence of the Elk in Switzerland 

 during the historical period, but it is mentioned by Ca?sar as exist- 

 ing in the great Hercynian forest ; and even in the twelfth century it 

 was to be met with in Sclav onia and Hungary, according to Albertus 

 Magnus and Gresner. In Saxony, the death of the last is recorded 

 as having occurred in 1746. At present it inhabits Prussia and 

 Lithuania, Einland and Eussia, Scandinavia and Siberia, to the shores 

 of the Amoor. 



Tlie Ibex disappeared from most of the Swiss Alps, perhaps not 

 much later than the Elk. It lingered longest iu the West. In 

 Grlarus the last one perished in 1550, though near Chiavenna it 

 existed until the commencement of the 17th century, and in the Tyrol 

 until the second half of the 18th, while it still maintains itself in the 

 mountains surrounding Mont Iseran. 



The extermination of the Bear, like that of the Ibex, seems to 

 have begun in the East, and not yet to be complete, since this animal 

 stni occm'S in the Jura, in Wallis, and in the South-Eastern parts of 

 Switzerland. 



The Eox, the Otter, and the different species of Weasels, are 

 si ill the common carnivora of Switzerland, and the Wild Cat, the 

 Badger, and the Wolf still occur in the Jura and the Alps, the latter 

 in cold winters venturing even into the plains. 



The Beaver on the contrary has at last disappeared. It has 

 long been very rare in Switzerland, but a few survived until the 

 beginning of the present century, in Lucerne and Wallis. Eed deer 



