•252 On Man^s Influence in effecting 



same animal as the zubr, which he thinks was called tur in 

 Muscovia and Samogitia, and zubr in Lithuania, I shall say, 

 in corroboration of the latter opinion, that nearly all that Her- 

 berstein knew about the tur from hearsay, is fabulous ; (for in- 

 stance, that it breeds with tame cows, but that the progeny 

 does not come to perfection, "vituli qui nascuntur non sunt 

 vitales ; " that the turs which have mixed with tame cows, 

 are expelled from their herd, as infamous, &c.) the report 

 which he makes respecting the carcass of a tur, given to him 

 by King Sigismundus Augustus, bears strong evidence of his 

 having received a zubr, which the men who delivered it call- 

 ed tur, whereas he himself allows that he was absent at the 

 time the present was received. For the specimen in question 

 was one of those driven from the herd for the reason above 

 stated, and it is well known that the zubrs often drive bulls 

 from their herds, or that old bulls insulate themselves of their 

 own accord, which solitary specimens are now called " Sa- 

 mowtor," or "Odyniec." In the specimen which Herberstein 

 obtained, the scalp was wanting; and this happens to be just 

 the part of the skin which is the centre of the musky smell 

 in the zubr, and to which medicinal and mysterious powers 

 were formerly ascribed. However, Herberstein forgot to ask 

 why it was wanting,* and as on that occasion he did not 

 even ascertain the nature of the hair of the tur, but describes 

 this important character from a girdle of the skin of the Urus 

 (or tur), sent to him at a later period, when in Austria, by 

 Antonius Schneeberger,f we have strong reasons to suppose 

 that he did not even see the carcass presented to him. 



I must also refer to a circumstance which is not irrelevant 

 as to the opinion that the zubr and tur are identical. In Con- 

 rad Gesner's'Icones Animalium,' p. 30, (Heidelb. edit. 1606), 

 is a representation of the manner in which the Urus was kill- 

 ed, which evidently owes its origin to the description from 

 which Herberstein copies his report on the method of hunt- 

 precisely the same as those which the zubr prefers, in the forest of Bialow- 

 icza. He found in the Archives of Warsaw, that the last turs in Masovia 

 died in 1630, of a distemper communicated to them by the tame cattle, pro- 

 bably the typhus. This may be true of half-wild common oxen kept in 

 parks, and wrongly called turs. As for the real turs or zubr, they were pro- 

 bably extirpated by poachers, as the forest of Jakturow in Masovia was not 

 strictly preserved. 



*" Quod non temere factum esse credidi, quanquam cur id fieri soleret, 

 per incogitantiam quandam non sum percontatus." 



f-"Cujus corium duriusculum validumque est; pili vero, (quod mireris), 

 mollissimi, instar pecoris lance, densi coloris nigri, sed rufo modice admix- 

 to, si proprius spectes." This was no doubt a piece of skin of the part 

 of the zubr that is not shaggy. 



