THE GREAT URUS. 3 



size little inferior to the elephant, but in colour, form, and 

 general appearance resembling the common bull. " Great 

 is their strength, and great their swiftness," says the Eoman 

 leader, " and they spare neither man nor wild beast that 

 comes within their view. The Germans take and kill 

 them in pitfalls made with great care and trouble. Their 

 young men inure themselves to this labour, and exercise 

 themselves in this kind of hunting ; and they who have 

 killed the most, publicly produce their horns in testimony 

 of their exploits, and receive praise. But it is impossible 

 to accustom them to man, and to tame them ; and to this, 

 even the very young ones are no exception. The great 

 size, form, and beauty of their horns make them differ 

 much from the horns of our oxen : these they collect with 

 great care, and, surrounding the margin of them with 

 silver, use them as cups at their largest banquets." This 

 is an interesting picture drawn by a graphic writer who 

 had seen the huge monster careering wildly in all its pris- 

 tine majesty. Pliny describes the urus as an animal of 

 " excessive strength and swiftness," and states that both 

 the urus and the bison were conveyed from Germany to 

 Rome, and " viewed by the people in the circus." 



Numerous skeletons, or parts of skeletons, supposed to 

 belong to the Bos urus type, have from time to time 

 been discovered in the British Isles, and elsewhere in 

 Europe, and from these various scientific observers and 

 celebrated naturalists have given us sketches of this 

 ancient variety of cattle. Professor Nilsson, writing of 

 the urus, says: "The forehead is flat, the edge of the 

 neck is straight, the horns very large and long, near the 

 roots directed outward, and somewhat backward ; in the 

 middle they are bent forward, and towards the front 

 turned upward. This colossal species of ox, to judge from 

 the skeleton, resembles almost the tame ox in form and 

 the proportions of its body; but in its bulk it is far 

 larger. To judge from the magnitude of its horn-cores, it 



