470 



THE CLOVEN-HOOFED ANIMALS. 



The Tibetan employs the Yak as a beast of burden 

 and as a saddle animal. The disposition of the Yak 

 toward its friends and familiars is one of compara- 

 tive gentleness, as it allows itself to be handled, 

 groomed and led by a rope secured to a ring put 

 through its nose. Towards strangers it behaves dif- 

 ferently, as a rule: it expresses uneasiness, lets its 

 head drop to the ground and acts generally as if it 

 intended to challenge an antagonist. It always re- 

 tains a certain amount of its natural fierce disposi- 

 tion. 

 Yaks Especially The Yak easily carries on its back 



Useful in Mount- from two hundred to three hundred 

 ain Country. pounds, and that over the most diffi- 

 cult, rocky paths and snow fields. It may be used 

 to convey burdens across very high mountain passes, 

 for it retains its vitality and strength there also, in 

 spite of the rarefied air which so exhausts and op- 

 presses other creatures. It can not be employed on 

 roads interrupted by boulders and wide fissures, for 

 a heavy burden hinders it from jumping over high 

 rocks or wide crevices. 



The milk and the flesh of the tame Yak are 

 equally valuable as food for Man. The hide is 

 tanned into leather and the hair is twisted into 

 ropes. The most valuable part of the beast in the 

 eyes of the warlike tribes of its. neighborhood is the 

 tail, which furnishes them with those famous insig- 

 nia of war or decorations borne before persons of 

 rank, the "horse tails" so frequently mentioned in 

 works treating of Oriental subjects. 



The Yak Easy of The Yaks which have been taken to 

 Acclimation in For- Europe have thriven better than 

 eign Lands. was expected. The suggestion was 

 thus made that this beautiful Ox might be success- 

 fully acclimated in foreign lands and the rearing of 

 the animals in a domestic state might be expected to 

 yield abundant profit; for the Yak furnishes excel- 

 lent wool, palatable flesh and rich milk; is a strong 

 and indefatigable worker and contents itself with 

 cheaper food than other Cattle. The Grunting Ox is 

 certainly useful in all these respects on the table- 

 lands of Tibet and Turkestan, and there proves to 

 be an almost invaluable animal. But beyond the 

 mere suggestion nothing has ever been done in the 

 matter, as in Europe it was thought that the ranges 

 of mountains are sufficiently stocked with mountain 

 Cattle and Alpine Goats and it was contended that 

 the Yak would certainly not render greater service 

 or prove of more value than they. 



The Home of the A game preserve of a peculiar kind 

 European is found in western Russia, in the 

 Bison. southern portion of old Lithuania. 



It is the famous forest of Bialowitch, a genuine 

 northern virgin forest of an area of 2,000 square 

 kilometers. It is entirely unconnected with any 

 other forest and it may be compared to an island, 

 surrounded by fields, villages and treeless heaths. 

 Within the boundaries of the forest there is only 

 one village, the name of which is identical with that 

 of the forest; this settlement is inhabited not by 

 farmers but by foresters alone. About four-fifths of 

 the trees are pines, which exist to the exclusion of 

 other species over extensive stretches; in the damper 

 spots they are interspersed with oaks, linden trees, 

 hornbeams, birches, alder trees, poplars and willows. 

 This forest still harbors the greatest mammal of 

 the European continent, the European Bison. This 

 huge animal nowadays exists only there and in a few 

 forests on the Caucasus and in the woods of Mezer- 

 zitz in Silesia; on the remainder of the globe, if we 



except a kindred American species, it is extinct. 

 Stringent laws protect it in the forest of Bialowitch, 

 and if the successive owners of this remarkable 

 game park had not fostered it during several hun- 

 dred years, the European Bison would now be found 

 only in small numbers in the Caucasus. 



In former times this was different; for the Bison 

 ranged all over Europe and a large portion of Asia, 

 but in spite of efforts to preserve it the attacks of 

 poachers and finally a general epizootic, which de- 

 stroyed the greater portion of the herds in the be- 

 ginning of the eighteenth century, reduced their 

 numbers most materially. 



The Bisons (Bo/mssus) are considered the repre- 

 sentatives of a distinct sub-genus of the Oxen and 

 are characterized by small, round horns, which are 

 placed well to the front and curve upwards; a very 

 broad, arched forehead, soft, long hair and the 

 great number of their ribs. The European Bison 

 or Wisent has fourteen pairs of ribs, the American 

 Bison fifteen. 



Description of the Though we may safely assume that 

 European the European Bison (Bos bison or 

 Bison. Bonass2is bison) has diminished in 



size, it is still a huge animal. A specimen of the 

 species slain in Prussia in 1555 was seven feet high 

 and thirteen feet long, and weighed over nineteen 

 hundred pounds. Nowadays the most gigantic bulls 

 rarely grow higher than five feet eight inches or 

 longer than eleven feet four inches, nor do they 

 weigh more than one thousand to one thousand four 

 hundred pounds. The Bison impresses the beholder 

 as the incarnation of rude strength and vigor. Its 

 head is moderately large and well shaped, the fore- 

 head is high and very broad, the facial portion 

 tapers uniformly towards the extremity; the muzzle 

 is blunt and broad, the ears short and rounded and 

 the eye may be called small. The neck is very 

 stout, short, and thick through from upper to lower 

 surface, and is encased in a loose skin which devel- 

 ops into a dewlap, extending from the throat down 

 to the breast. The body is supported by stout legs 

 and has a bulky appearance, and the shoulders are 

 strongly arched from the rear of the withers to the 

 middle of the neck. The tail is short and thick. 

 The horns are set on very much to the sides of the 

 frontal bone of the skull and are comparatively 

 small, round and pointed; they first curve outward, 

 then upward and at the same time slightly forward, 

 and then inward and backward, so that the tips 

 stand nearly vertically above the bases. The fur is 

 dense and long all over the body, and consists of 

 a thickset, curly outer coat and a woolly matted 

 shorter under fur. On the back of the head the hair 

 grows into a broad tuft, and along the spine rises 

 into a moderately high crest; on the chin it forms a 

 beard which hangs down after the manner of a 

 queue and on the lower part of the throat it de- 

 velops into a wide mane, covering the whole of 

 the dewlap. The prevalent color is a light brown, 

 dashed with a faded yellow tint; on the sides of the 

 head and on the beard it deepens into black-brown, 

 on the legs into dark brown, on the tail-tuft into 

 black, and on the tuft of hair overhanging the top of 

 the head it softens into a light brownish-yellow. 

 The cow is of a perceptibly smaller and more grace- 

 ful build than the bull; her horns are weaker and 

 the mane is much less developed, but she is of the 

 same colorings as the male. 



In summer and autumn the Bison lives concealed 

 in damp spots of the wood, usually in thickets; in 



