260 



EUSSIA IN EUEOPE. 



and representing a fauna which tradition and tho chronicles speak of as existing 

 on the banks of the Dnieper and in Central Russia in the historic period. The 

 Caucasian and Lithuanian specimens are now the only survivors of the vast herds 

 at one time spread over the whole of East Europe. Those of Bela-Yeja are 

 protected by severe laws, and the Czar alone occasionally presents a few to friendly 

 princes or zoological gardens. In the beginning of the century there were about 

 1,000, and in 1851 1,400, since when the want of fodder and the wolves have 



Fig. 123. — Limits of the Catholic and Orthodox Religions in Lithuania. 



Scale 1 : 4,445,000. 



E.of P. 



26" JQ 



E »f G. 



Populations. 



Orthodox Greek. Eomaa Catholic. 



Protestant. Mohammedan. 



50 Miles. 



reduced them by about one-half. They are often erroneously confounded with the 

 aurochs, which still existed in large numbers three centuries ago, but which has 

 since been entirely exterminated. 



The Lithuani.an Race and Language. 



The Lithuanians, long classed with tlie Slavs, whom they resemble in many 

 respects, formerly occupied, with their Prussian and Kur kinsmen, all the Baltic 



