



of our inland were the Bitmta juliali of I'liny, tliiin continue* : 

 Tin- I 'ru* of the Heroyiiian forest, described by t'wiar, book vl, 

 was of this kind, the tame which U called by the modern Germans 

 Aurochs, that u, Hut tylrtttrit." Now let us look at Ctesar's description. 

 " These t'ri are little inferior to elephant* in uxe, but are bulls in 

 their nature, colour, and figure. Great U their strength and great 

 their swiftnem, nor do they (pare man or beaut when they have 

 caught light of them. These, when trapped in pitfall*, the hunter* 

 diligently kill. The youths exercising themselves by this sort of 

 hunting arc hardened by the toil; and those among them who have 

 killed iii' wt, bringing with them the horn* a* testimonials, acquire 

 great praise. But these Uri cannot be habituated to man or mode 

 tractable, not even when young. The great size of the horns, a* well 

 a* the form and quality of them, differs much from the horns of our 

 oxen. These, when carefully selected, they ring round the edge with 

 silver and use them for drinking-cups at their ample feasts." Though 

 there are parU of this description applicable to the European Bison, 

 there is one striking character which forbids us to conclude that 

 Ctraar's t'rut was identical with it. A glance at the European Bison 

 will convince us that it never could have afforded the horns whose 

 amplitude Ctesar celebrates. In the ' Archieologia,' vol. iii. p. 15, it 

 is stated that the Borstal horn is supposed to have belonged to the 

 Bison or Buffalo. That it might have belonged to a Buffalo is not 

 impossible, but that it did not belong to a Bison is sufficiently clear 

 from the following description : " It is 2 feet 4 inches long on the 

 convex bend, and 23 inches on the concave. The inside at the large 

 end is 3 inches diameter, being perforated there BO as to leave the 

 thickness only of half an inch for about 3 inches deep ; but farther in 

 it is thicker, being not so much or so neatly perforated." This horn 

 was no doubt supplied by the Great Fossil Ox, the Bat primigenint. 

 Horns were anciently used amongst us in the conveyance of 

 inheritances ; of which we have examples in the Borstal horn, and 

 the Pusey horn. These probably belonged to the Great Fossil Ox. 

 Thai the common Ox could not be descended from the Bison as has 

 been conjectured by some, is proved by the fact that the Aurochs or 

 European Bison has 14 pairs of ribs, while the Ox has but 13, and 

 that the legs of the Aurochs are more slender and longer than those 

 of the Ox and true Buffalo. The European Bison, moreover, has but 

 five lumbar vertebra, while the other oxen, with the exception of 

 the American Bison, which has only four according to Cuvier, possess 

 ix. [Bovin.K.] 



" The front of the common Ox," eays Cuvier, " is flattened, and 

 even in a small degree concave ; that of the Aurochs is rounded into 

 convexity (bombd), though rather less than that of the Buffalo. It is 



square in the Ox, its height 

 being nearly equal to its breadth, 

 taking for it* base an imaginary 

 line between the orbits. In the 

 Aurochs, with the same mode 

 of measurement, it is much 

 broader than it is high, in the 

 proportion of three to one. 

 The horns are attached in the 

 Ox to the extremities of the 

 most elevated salient line ol 

 the head, that, namely, which 

 separates the occiput from the 

 front ; in the Aurochs this line 

 is two inches farther back than 

 the root of the horns. The 

 plane of the occiput makes a 

 sharp angle with the front in 

 the Ox ; this angle is obtuse in 

 the Aurochs ; ami lastly, this 

 quadrangular plane of the 

 occiput, as it i in the Ox 

 represent* a half circle in the 

 Aurochs." 



The figures here given were 

 taken from the skull of the 

 European Bison or Aurochs in 

 the museum at Paris. Thi- 

 must have been a young animal, 

 ns will be seen from comparing 

 the representation of its skull 

 with that of the foUowing speoi- 



Skull of Kuropran Hinon, front view 



lis own description, when compared with that of Ai 

 eave littli- doubt that the Ruo* jubntiu and Bonatut of Pliny and 

 others, the Bonxriroj or BoVcuroi of Aristotle (for the word is writt. M 

 >oth way*), and the Bfowof O|>|>i.ui. w. n- no other titan tli 

 tiuou. 



There is now no doubt 

 that the Biton jubaiui of I'liny 

 (book viiL c. 15, and xxviii. c. 

 10), which he seems to dis- 

 tinguish from the Una, was 

 the European Bison or Aurochs ; 

 and though in the 1 5th chapter 

 f the 8th book he mentions the 

 tradition of a wild bcasi in Prconia called a Bunaitu, after he has 

 dismissed hi* Buonla jubati, and with every appearance of a conclu 

 ion on bis part that the Bonaiia and Biton were not identical 



I-. ' - . 



skull of old European Bison, front view. 



European Blon (Sam uropma). 



Cuvier in hi* ' Ossemen* Fo**iles,' states it to be his opinion t!i:ii 

 this animal, the largest or at least the most iiiawive of all ei 



,|,,-.lM nftor the rhino,-.-, i< n distinct "* which mi 



Following out this subject with his usual industry 



