492 



Cuvier, who has collected, with his usual research, all 

 the notices in the poets and historians of those periods, 

 cites amongst others the following passage from Seneca, 

 which briefly and clearly defines the characteristics of the 

 two species : 



" Tibi dant variae pectora tigres, 

 Tibi villosi terga bisontes 

 Latisque feri cornibus uri." 



Pliny characterises the Bison by its mane, and distinguishes 

 the "jubatos bisontes" from the " excettentique m et velocitate 

 uros" the Uri remarkable for their strength and speed. 



One of the species of the great primitive European wild 

 cattle, now known as the Lithuanian Aurochs, still sur- 

 vives by virtue of strict protective laws, in extensive fo- 

 rests, which form part of the Russian Empire ; and it is 

 distinguished from all the breeds of domestic cattle of Eu- 

 rope, and from the Chillingham wild oxen, by the thicker 

 clothing of hair, which, in the male Aurochs, is developed 

 at the fore-part of the body into a curly felted mane, jus- 

 tifying the distinctive epithets of " villous" and " maned," 

 applied by the Romans to the wild Bison of their period. 



The Aurochs, (Bison) differs, moreover, from all the 

 species or varieties of ordinary Ox (Bos) by more im- 

 portant characters, deducible, fortunately, from those en- 

 during parts of its body which serve to reveal its ex- 

 istence in Europe, at periods more remote than the 

 conquests of Caesar. The differences observable in the 

 skull, for example, of the Bos and Bison are thus accu- 

 rately and distinctly defined by Cuvier : 



" The forehead of the Ox (Bos) is flat, and even slightly 

 concave ; that of the Aurochs (Bison) is convex (bombe), 

 though somewhat less so than in the Buffalo : it is quad- 

 rate in the Ox, its height, taking the base between the 



