232 



THE OX. 



one, at least, which existed in the ancient forests of Europe, 

 and which, we shall see, is not yet extinct. This animal was 

 termed Urochs by the older Germans, a word which is de- 

 rived from Ur, a root common to many languages, and signi- 

 fying original or old, and ochs, an ox. The Greek and Ro- 

 man writers employed the term Urus, either borrowed from 

 the Teutonic, or derived from the same root, Ur, which 

 entered into the composition of their own Taugof and Taurus. 

 From the same source are derived the Shur and Tur of the 

 Hebrew and other languages of the East ; and hence, too, 

 the Thur of the Poles, the Tyr, Tyer, Stier, Steer, in the 

 dialects of northern Europe. We find, too, terms derived 

 from the designation of the bull applied to the names of 

 countries, mountains, and forests ; as the Turan of Persia, 

 the Turan of the Caucasus, the Turin of Italy, the Tours of 

 France, the Thuringian forest, and many more. 



The Uri are described by Julius Caesar as existing in the 

 Hercynian forest, as being little short of elephants in size, 

 and as being of the kind, colour, and figure of the bull.* 

 Pliny refers to them as inhabitants of Scythia and Germany, 

 along with the Bison, adverting, at the same time, to the 

 vulgar error of confounding the Urus with the Bubalus, 

 which, says he, was an animal like a Stag brought from 

 Africa. Solinus repeats the opinion of Pliny. " In the 

 tract of the Hercynian forest, and in all the northern regions, 

 are likewise Uri, which the ignorant vulgar term Bubali." 

 But the great confusion which subsequently took place, was 

 in confounding the Urus with the Bison, although the dis- 

 tinction had been drawn by Pliny, Seneca, Pomponius, and 

 other writers. More modern authors still more distinctly 

 point out the difference between those animals. Thus, Lau- 

 rentius, in his commentaries on the affairs of his own time, 

 writes : " In Lithuania there are Bisons, Uri, and likewise 

 Elks : those are in error who call the Bisons, Uri ; for the 



* In Sylva Hercyniae nascuntur qui appellantur Uri. Hi sunt magnitudine 

 paulo infra Klephantos, specie et colore et figura Tauri. De Belh Gallico. 



