Bovine Animals of Scandinavia. 421 



tislaf V. killed, at a hunt in Hinter-Pomerania about the year 

 1364, a "Wysant" which was stronger and larger than an Urus. 

 In East Prussia, between Liebau and Tilsit, the Bison was found 

 as late as the last century ; and formerly it was found in the 

 whole of Lithuania, even in the neighbourhood of the city of 

 Wilna (Eichwald, loc. cit.). In the forest of Bialowieser in 

 Lithuania, Augustus III. king of Poland held a great hunt on 

 the 27th Sept. 1752, in which were killed forty-two Bisons (!) 

 and thirteen Elks. In ancient times the Bison was also found 

 in the north of Greece, Macedonia and Thrace. In Aristotle's 

 " Bonasos," which is found in Pseonia, that part of Thrace now 

 called Bulgaria, we easily recognise the Bison (Cuv. /. c. p. Ill), 

 which formerly was also found in Moldavia; and it is probable 

 that the story of the giant-like ox, which Philip of Macedon 

 killed at the foot of Mount Oreli, and whose hide he hung up 

 together with the horns in the court of the temple of Hercules, 

 belonged to this same species. 



The Bison is now found on the wooded northern side of Mount 

 Caucasus, where it appears to exist in large numbers, and 

 is an object of the chase to the Tscherkesser and Abschaser, in 

 whose language it is called Dombei or Adompe. In Moldavia 

 and in the Carpathian mountains it is no longer found. Now that 

 it is no longer to be met with in East Prussia, it is more and 

 more confined to the forests of Lithuania. At the present time 

 it is only found in one large forest, Bialowesha, where in a wild 

 state it is enclosed and preserved by the command of the Em- 

 peror of Russia. As this colossal animal formerly lived also in 

 the forests of southern Scania, it may not be uninteresting to 

 know the nature of the place where it now lives and what 

 manner of life it there leads*. 



Bialowesha-forest, which lies on a large level expanse, is sur- 

 rounded by plains, comprising 5 Swedish miles in length and 

 4-4^ in breadth. The forest consists chiefly of lir and pine 

 trees interspersed with birch. Grassy pastures are there not 

 unfrequent; but in many places the ground is swampy, and al- 

 most a twelfth part consists of reedy fens. Here the Elk chiefly 

 takes up its abode ; but these fens are avoided by the Bisons, who 

 on the contrary seek high land with aromatic grass, also sharp 

 and bitter herbs ; they likewise gnaw off the young bark of trees ; 

 in the spring they consume the young leaves of the lime, poplar, 

 elm, and willow, but not the leaves of birch or oak, and least of 

 all the leaves of the pine. On the other hand they devour some 

 sorts of mosses : they always avoid places without trees or that 

 are cultivated; they never go into fields, but keep in thickly 



* What I have here communicated is mostly taken from Eichwald % Nat, 

 Hist. p. 211. 



