420 Prof. Nilsson on the extinct and existing 



Scania's turf-bogs, the Bison was much less common there than 

 the Bos primigenius and Bos longifrons, whose fossil remains are 

 found in much greater number. The few fossil bones of the 

 Bison which have hitherto been noticed with us, consist of one 

 old and one young cranium, and also one skeleton, all which 

 have been dug up from a turf-bog in the districts of Skytts and 

 Herresta, therefore in the most southern districts of the country. 

 It ought also to be observed, that in Denmark numerous fossil 

 bones of the Urus have been found, but hitherto not one single 

 bone of the Bison has been discovered. 



In a great part of Europe this colossal Ox has existed during 

 the historic period ; but in the English isles it appears to have 

 been extinct already at the time they were first known to history. 

 For in Caesar's time, when the Roman legions traversed the 

 forests of France, part of Germany and Belgium, they there found 

 both the Bison and the Urus ; but in no place is it mentioned 

 that the victorious Romans in England met with any species of 

 large wild ox ; which seems to show that both the Urus and Bison 

 were already extinct in that country. On the continent, where 

 they continued to be found in the large wild forests even long 

 after Caesar's time, they seem to have disappeared by degrees, 

 through the increase of population and culture, first in the west 

 and afterwards in the more eastern tracts of the country. In 

 the Vosges and the Ardennes, wild oxen were found even in 

 King Gontram's time ; and history informs us that he put to 

 death one of his chamberlains, the nephew of the same, and a 

 forester, because, without permission, they shot a Bubalus 

 (Wild Ox) in the Vosges (Cuv. Becherches, iv. p. 117). In 

 the Wilkina Saga*, hunts are described in the forest of ' Wals- 

 lunga' (probably the forest of Thuringia) and the f Ungara J 

 forest, in which several young (ten), and one old and very large Vi- 

 sunt were killed. One sees by this whole account that princes 

 hunted these large animals in their forests, and were exceedingly 

 careful of them. In the old Leges Allemanorum (from the 6th 

 and 7th centuries) it is enacted, that if any one stole or killed a 

 Bison, Buffalo (Urus ?), or Deer, he should be mulcted in a large 

 sum of money (see Baer in Wiedem. Arch. 1839, p. 75). In 

 the poem of the Nibelungen from the 12th century, the Bison 

 is spoken of (Visent) as among the animals which were killed at 

 a hunt in the forest near Worms : Lucas Dawid relates in the 

 ' Preussens Kronik/ that about the year 1240 there was found 

 in the land much game, consisting of Uroxen, Visents, wild Horses, 

 Elks and others (see Baer, ut sup. p. 71). The prince Wra- 



* Peringskiold's edition, Stockholm, 1715, p. 229. Peringskiold translates, 

 quite improperly, Visunt by Kronhjort (Crown-deer), which misrepresents the 



meaning of the Saga, 



