216 On Man's Influence in effecting 



ed them himself, when at the limit of that forest. All how- 

 ever that he says of the Urus, with the exception of the ex- 

 aggerated bulk, is correct, if we refer it to the Bison, though 

 we may feel somewhat surprised at the mane not being men- 

 tioned, which, however, is not a very glaring omission in so 

 general a description. 



We now arrive at the testimony of an author, who is the 

 first that mentions both the Bison and the Urus, viz. Pliny.* 

 " There are," he says, " two remarkable species of wild oxen, 

 the maned Bison and the Urus, whose strength and swiftness 

 are extraordinary, and which common people in their igno- 

 rance call Bubali? This is all he has to say about animals 

 wliich he thinks so remarkable; but the less this natural phi- 

 losopher knew of these creatures, the more convinced must 

 we feel that he never had an opportunity of seeing either, and 

 that one of the names came to him from Greece, and the other 

 from Gallia. I think therefore that the testimony of Pliny has 

 but little weight in establishing the specific difference of the 

 Bison and Urus.f 



That, however, the animal called Urus was well known to 

 the Romans about the time of the elder Pliny, as far at least 

 as it could be known from its hide, is proved by a passage in 

 the 'Annals' of Tacitus, (lib. iv. c. 72); from which we learn 

 that in the sixteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, (A. D. 28), 

 the Frisians rebelled, because Olennius insisted that the hides 

 of oxen, which they furnished to the Romans for military pur- 

 poses, as a tribute, must all be the size of "terga urorum" 

 or the hides of Uri. That in this instance the skin of the 

 wild animal is to be understood, appears from the whole te- 

 nour of the passage. + We can, however, scarcely suppose, 



As for the Greek ougog, it occurs in an epigram of the Emperor Hadrian, on 

 a votive offering of the Emperor Trajan. 'Annals,' ii. p. 285. " Kai $oo$ 

 ou^ov, — aamTOV %fy<™ 7rac/A<pavocovTi K£ga$." I found a statement that 

 the word was already mentioned hy Empedocles, ' Fragmenta de Sphacera,' 

 hut I have sought for it in vain. 



* 'Hist. Nat. lib. viii. c. 15. 



fin the 16th chapter Pliny gives the description of the Bonasus, in which 

 he describes that animal as having the mane of the horse, and the shape of 

 a bull, and then goes on repeating the fabulous manner of defence, which 

 Aristotle had ascribed to the Bonasus, and which, no doubt, prevailed upon 

 Pliny to mention the Bison under two different names. 



J" Tributum iis Drusus jusserat modicum, pro angustia rerum, ut in u- 

 sus militares coria bourn penderent: non intenta cujusquam cura, quae fir- 

 mitudo, quae mensura ; donee Olennius, e primilaribus, regendis Frisiis 

 impositus, terga urorum delegit, quorum ad formam accipirentur. Id aliis 

 quoque nationibus arduum, apud Gcrmanos difficilius tolerabatur, quis in- 

 gentium belluarum feraces saltus, modica domi arminta sunt," &c. 



