520 



THE ZUBR, OR EUROPEAN BISON.* (Bison zubris.) 



It is impossible not to feel more interested in the history of 

 this animal than in that of the preceding species 5 for this,, which 

 seems to have had at one period an extensive range, is now only 

 found in the forest of Bialowicza, in Lithuania, where its race is 

 preserved and protected by game laws, and by the more direct 

 care of man in partially supplying it with food during the 

 winter. In 1829, there were, according to Jarocki, 663 adult 

 individuals and forty-eight calves contained in this primitive 

 forest, which comprises about three hundred and fifty two 

 English square miles, of which about sixty are rushy swamps, 

 and the remainder is overgrown with Scotch and red firs in 



* The bonasos, or monapos, described by Aristotle as inhabiting Paeonia (the 

 modern province of Bulgaria, in Turkey) , and the bison, which Pausanias and 

 Oppian describe as existing in the same locality, appear to be the present 

 species, although no longer found there; and it is, no doubt, the animal called 

 zimbr in Moldavia, about the time of Demetrius Cantemir. It has also been 

 called wisen, wisant, visant, ure, our, auer, auerocJcs, urochs, and tur ; evidently 

 originating in the more classic terms bison, urus, and taurus. There is a 

 third species of bison (Bison Caucasica), inhabiting Mount Caucasus, and 

 probably some districts of India and other parts of Asia. 



