358 Sir R. I. Miirchison on the 



sent outline of the land with that which preceded it. This is 

 the Bos Urus (^Aurochs) or primeval ox, whose bones are so 

 frequently associated with those of the mammoth in different 

 parts of Russia and many parts of Europe. But if the 

 species be the same, how has this exception been made, and 

 how have herds of these oxen been preserved in a living 

 state \ Looking at the forest of Bialavieja* in Lithuania as 



quudrupeds of former days, there does not exist a single skeleton or 

 stuffed specimen of the species either in France or the British Isles. As 

 far as England is concerned, this reproach is about to be removed 

 through the munificence of the Emperor Nicholas, who, at the request 

 of Mr Murcliison (graciously supported by his Imperial Highness the 

 Grand Duke Michael), has directed that a fine animal, selected from the 

 unique herd now living in the forest called Bialavieja, should be killed, 

 and his skin and skeleton sent to the museum of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons. It may not be known, that without a stringent ukase to pro- 

 hibit its annihilation, the peasantry of Lithuania would long ago have 

 exterminated this noble species. Though we have been led to believe 

 in the specific identity of this Lithuanian Aurochs with the extinct Urus 

 {Urus priscus of Bojanus and V. Meyer), that opinion is not generally 

 admitted. But we may hope that the question will be set at rest, as 

 soon as Professor Owen has the means of testing it. If the living Auroclis 

 be the real descendant of the great fossil animal, it might, judging from 

 the usual difference of size, be considered to have degenerated ; though 

 in the Museum at Warsaw, where we have seen three specimens which 

 are there preserved, one of them is nearly double the size of the other 

 two. We ourselves procured a very remarkable front and horns of the 

 Bos AurocJtFj found in the gravel west of Perm, with mammoth's teeth, 

 and M. Hommaire de Hell, also, found a fine head of the same in the 

 steppes between the Sea of Azof and the Caspian. 



* Count V. Krasinski, the author of the " History of the Reformation 

 in Poland," prepared, at the request of our friend Colonel Jackson, a 

 very interesting account of this forest and its inhabitants, from which we 

 extract the following data. The forest of Bialawieza (Bialavieja) is in 

 the government of Grondno on the river Narevka, and lying between the 

 towns of Orla, Shereshef, and Prujany, occupies a space of about 29 

 German, or 14.5 English square miles. Having been an ancient hunting 

 ground of the kings of Poland, it has been preserved in its wildest pris- 

 tine state. The Aurochs (Ziibr in the Polish language) was always pecu- 

 liar to Lithuania, if not to this vet-y forest. According to the earliest re- 

 cords, it was clearly distinguished from the native wild ox or Tur (an 

 animal possibly similar to the wild ox of Chillingham in Northumber- 



