ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF MAMMALIA IN EUROPE. 229 
quite impassable by human beings, but is covered with shrubs 
and trees of stunted growth, whose timber is of little value. 
Here is the so-called Forest of Ibenhorst, now the elk’s sole 
asylum within the confines of the German Empire. Such a 
retreat, where no formidable beast of prey exists, and where 
it is protected from man, its deadliest enemy, might seem 
specially conducive to its preservation; but the fact is that 
in this narrowly-restricted area, so deleterious have been the 
effects of inbreeding that, had not fresh blood been from 
time to time imported from Russia and Scandinavia, the 
stock must long ago have become extinct.* 
The same conditions will sooner or later cause the exter- 
mination of the largest of the land mammals of Europe-— 
the mighty Wisent or European Bison, erroneously but most 
commonly called Auerochs (Bison ewropeus).t This mag- 
nificent Ox, which in the Middle Ages was found throughout 
the greater part of Central Europe, and which survived 
in Prussia till the beginning of the latter half of the 
eighteenth century, is now preserved only in two widely- 
separated districts of European Russia,—the Bjelowjesha 
Forest in the Government of Grodno in Lithuania, on the 
borders of the province of West Prussia, and in the Kuban 
region on the north-west slopes of the Caucasus.{ Out of 
Europe it does not exist. It was introduced into its Grodno 
home by August III. of Poland, who was fond of hunting it, 
and who for its preservation enclosed part of the Bjelowjesha 
Forest, which is surrounded by vast steppes. Herr Langkavel 
(“Verbreitung europiischer und Kaukasischer Auerochsen,” 
Der Zooloyische Garten, 1894) has given a very interesting 
account of its history and distribution, but he considers that 
the statistical reports which have from time to time been 
published by Russian officials are not strictly reliable. It 
appears that its numbers were seriously diminished by 
poachers until comparatively recent years, while those who 
Were entrusted to watch the enclosure retained their situa- 
tions by periodically reporting visits of the various epidemic 
* In 1895 there were not quite 100 elks in the Ibenhorst Forest. 
+ The real Auerochs (Bos primigenius), the ‘‘Ur” of the Nibelungenlied, 
and “Thur” of the Hungarians, probably became extinct not earlier than the 
beginning of the sixteenth century. 
¥ It lingered in Transylvania till 1814. 
