10 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



it is protected by the Kussian Government. A similar 

 confusion has often arisen between the Urus and the 

 Buffalo (Bos bubalus), which was introduced into Europe 

 as a beast of burden from the East. It seems, too, a 

 pity that some modern naturalists have given to the 

 Bos urus the designation of Bos primigenius, thereby 

 causing unnecessary difficulty to those unacquainted 

 with the subject, by altering the name by which he 

 was known to ancient, mediaeval, and many modern 

 writers. 



However and whenever the Urus was first introduced 

 to Europe — a question outside the scope of this work — 

 in the Pleistocene age it was everywhere abundant as a 

 wild animal, both on the Continent and in the British 

 Isles; and in later, though pre-historic times, it still 

 existed in both — as its fossil remains everywhere testify — 

 though perhaps more sparingly in Britain. And what- 

 ever may be the case in this country, where authentic 

 history began at a much later period than it did in the 

 East and in Southern Europe, on the Continent the 

 Urus was well known during the historic era. Every- 

 where through what may be called Central Europe we 

 find this gigantic ox wild. Mount Hsemus, the Car- 

 pathians running through the middle of Europe, and 

 the Hyrcinian Forest, stretching from these almost 

 through Germany, and connecting them with other 

 mountain ranges, were his favourite haunts; from 

 Scythia, Sarmatia, and the Black Sea, to Denmark and 

 the shores of the Northern Ocean, everywhere we find 

 him. During the later stone age, in the shell-mounds 

 or kjokken - moddinger (kitchen - middens), consisting 

 chiefly of immense heaps of refuse shells, left on the 

 shores of nearly all the Danish islands by the Danish 



