PRE-HISTORIO TRACES OF THE URUS. 11 



aborigines, " the remains of the wild bull (Bos urus, 

 Linn.; Bos primigenius, Bojanus) " are found, " in such 

 numbers as to prove that the species was a favourite 

 food of that ancient people." " Professor Riitimeyer, of 

 Basle, has shown that among the remains of wild 

 animals dredged up from the ancient Swiss lake dwell- 

 ings, built on piles in the shallow parts of many Swiss 

 lakes, there are those of the wild bull." It is also 

 " beyond question that, towards the close of the stone 

 and beginning of the bronze period, the lake dwellers 

 had succeeded in taming that formidable brute, the Bos 

 primigenius, the Urus of Caesar." " In a tame state 

 its bones were somewhat less massive and heavy, and 

 its horns somewhat smaller than in wild individuals. 

 Still, in its domesticated form, it rivalled in dimensions 

 the largest living cattle, those of Friesland in North 

 Holland, for example. When most abundant it had 

 nearly superseded the smaller race."* My readers 

 will not fail to observe the speedy change which 

 in some respects was produced in the wild bull by 

 domestication. 



When we advance further, and come to historic 

 times, we find frequent notices of the Urus, or wild 

 bull. Herodotus, writing about 400 B.C., tells us that 

 when the army of Xerxes was passing through a part 

 of Pseonia and Crestonia, which lay between Southern 

 Thrace and Macedonia, and indeed formed part of the 

 latter, the country abounded with wild bulls; which 

 must have been animals of great power, for the same 

 country was infested by lions so ferocious that they 



* The above quotations are all taken from Sir C. Lyell's " Antiquity 

 of Man," 4th edition, 1873, chap, ii., where will be found fuller in- 

 formation on this interesting subject. 



