262 Prof. Nilsson on the extincfand existing 



to be found on the earth in its wild state, was formerly widely- 

 spread over the greater part of Europe, from the present Scania 

 to France and Italy, and from England to the northern and 

 western parts of Asia ; as in all those places its fossil bones are 

 found in more recent strata. That great physical changes have 

 occurred in the position of places in Europe, during the long 

 time it sojourned here, is more than probable. South Scania has 

 separated itself from the German continent, by means of that part 

 of the Baltic which now lies between its shores and those of Pome- 

 rania ; also from Denmark by means of the Sound ; and England 

 has also been separated from the great European continent by the 

 Channel. Whether these straits — the Oresund, the Channel and 

 the southern part of the Baltic — were formed at the same time, we 

 do not know with certainty ; but from zoological reasons, which 

 shall hereafter be adduced, it will appear that Scandinavia was at 

 a much later period united to the European continent than En- 

 gland. In the present southern part of Scania, in the district 

 south of Soderas, which anciently appears to have formed the 

 northern boundary of the Germanic continent, this species was 

 found in vast numbers ; and to judge from the fossil bones dug 

 up from our turf-bogs, they are found here in much greater 

 number than the Bison, which existed here contemporaneously 

 with it. During an equally long period, fifteen skeletons or skulls 

 of the Urus have been found in Scania and only three of the 

 Bison. According to these remains found, there must have 

 lived five times as many of the former species as of the latter. 

 However, although this proportion cannot be determined so ex- 

 actly by figures, it nevertheless shows that the Urus was found 

 here in much larger number than the Bison, and this same pro- 

 portion might hold good in the whole of the western part of 

 Europe* ; while on the contrary, the Bison appears to have been 

 far more numerous in its eastern parts, and far into west Asia, 

 where it is yet found in great numbers between the Black 

 and the Caspian seas. And that the Urus belonged to the 

 western tracts of Europe, which being thickly peopled and culti- 

 vated before the eastern parts, might also be a reason that it was, 

 as wild, extirpated or passed over into a tame race; while the 

 Bison of the east preserved itself much longer in East Prussia 

 and Poland, and is even now found in a perfectly wild state in 

 those countries most nearly bordering on Asia. This species 

 never could be tamed. 



Julius Caesar describes the Urox in his time as being found in 



* In Denmark a vast number of bones belonging to the Urus have been 

 found, but as yet not one of the Bison. The Bison skulls which I saw in 

 England belonged, if not to a totally different species, at least to a much older 

 form than ours. 



