HISTORICAL NOTICES. 13 



ness, the Urus, to which the ignorant vulgar give the 

 name of Bubalus." And he says that "both of these 

 animals were carried to Rome, and viewed by the people 

 in the circus." Still more explicit is the earlier account 

 of Caesar, when describing the wild beasts of the 

 Hyrcinian Forest, which then covered a large part of 

 Germany, and connected the Gallic forests with those of 

 the Carpathians and of Scythia. " The third kind of 

 wild beasts is the one they call the Urus. Of such 

 great size as to be little inferior to elephants, in general 

 appearance, colour, and form they are bulls. Great is 

 their strength, and great their swiftness ; 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 the horns in testimony of their 

 exploits, and receive great praise. But it is impos- 

 sible to accustom them to men 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." 



It is rather singular that both Caesar and Pliny use 

 the same words to characterise the Urus — " vis et velo- 

 citas " : strength and swiftness — and that they both use 

 adjectives which intensify the expression. Caesar's 

 description has generally been accepted as the best ever 

 given, and it accords entirely with all others which have 

 any pretence to be authentic, except perhaps in one 



