THE EOMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



fested its inborn wildness in a remarkable manner. 

 On the stranger stroking its head, it sprang to 

 its feet, though very lean and very weak, pawed 

 two or three times like an old bull, bellowed very 

 loud, stepped back a few paces, and bolted at his 

 legs with all its force; it then began to paw 

 again, bellowed, stepped back and bolted as be- 

 fore. The observer, however, now knowing its 

 intention, stepped aside, so that it missed its aim 

 and fell, when it was so very weak that it could 

 not rise, though it made several efforts to do so. 

 But it had done enough; the whole herd had 

 taken the alarm, and, coming to its rescue, obliged 

 the intruder to retire. 



In the forests of Lithuania there yet linger a few 

 herds of another enormous ox, which at one time 

 roamed over the whole of Europe, including even 

 the British Isles— the European bison. The great 

 marshy forest of Bialowicza, in which it dwells, is 

 believed to be the only example of genuine pri- 

 meval or purely natural forest yet remaining in 

 Europe, and the habits of the noble ox are in 

 accordance with the prestige of his ancient do- 

 main. 



A few years ago the Czar of Russia presented a 

 pair of half-grown animals of this species to the 

 Zoological Society of London; and a very inter- 

 esting memoir on their capture, by M. Dolmatoff, 

 was published in their Proceedings. A few ex- 

 tracts from that paper will illustrate the seclusion 

 of their haunts and manners. ''The day was 

 magnificent, the sky serene, there was not a 

 breath of wind, and nothing interrupted that 

 calm of nature which was so imposing under the 

 majestic dome of the primitive forest. Three hun- 

 dred trackers, supported by fifty hunters, had 

 surrounded, in profound silence, the solitary valley 

 194 



