52 THE DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS 



pressure of civilization had driven the survivors of the 

 Giant Ox beyond the bounds of the Scottish Lowlands. 



Nevertheless it appears still to have survived in the 

 northern parts of the kingdom, for remains which seem to 

 be identical with those of the marls and peat-bogs, have been 

 found in underground buildings or "Eird" houses apparently 

 belonging to the period of the brochs or "Pictish Towers," 

 at Skara in Orkney and in an ancient mound at Keiss in 

 Caithness, as well as in a broch itself, at Kintrawell beyond 

 Brora in Sutherlandshire. There is some reason to believe, 

 therefore, that the Broch Period, lasting towards the ninth 

 or tenth century, saw the last wild British survivors of 

 this great race of cattle, long before they had disappeared 

 from the dense forests of Central Europe, where they were 

 believed by Professor Nilsson to have existed in a wild 

 or half-wild state even to the beginning and middle of the 

 sixteenth century, many years after the exploits of the 

 redoubtable Siegfried in the woods of Worms, sung in the 

 Niebelungen lied: 



Then slowe the dowghtie Sigfried a Wisent 1 and an Elk, 



He smote four stoute Uroxen and a grim and sturdie Schelk 2 . 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE URUS 



There is no Scottish written evidence to guide us in 

 determining the characters of this Scottish wild ox, for 

 the only definite relics of its existence are the bones of 

 the prehistoric and early historic deposits. Their evidence, 

 however, is clear as regards the general character of the 

 animal. Its bones in every respect, in their proportions, 

 contours and even in the details of their ridges and muscle- 

 impressions, agree so closely with those of recent oxen 

 as to show that the Urus was in reality no more than a 

 variety of Bos taurus. In one striking respect the skeletal 

 remains differ in size. From a skeleton which he compared 

 with that of a recent ox, Principal Sir William Turner 

 estimated that the Urus must have easily stood six feet 

 high at the shoulder, a size sufficiently great, though not 

 to be compared with Caesar's exaggerated description of 



1 Bison. 



2 Red Deer, or perhaps the now extinct Giant Fallow Deer. 



