TEE URUS AND BISON DISTINCT. 9 



common to many languages," the meaning of which is 

 somewhat variously given. " The Greek and Roman 

 writers employed the term Urus, either borrowed from 

 the Teutonic or derived from the same root Ur, which 

 entered into the composition of their own Tavpo? and 

 Taurus. From the same source are derived the Shur 

 and Tur of the Hebrew and other languages of the East; 

 and hence, too, the Thur of the Poles, the Tyr, Tyer, 

 Stier, Steer, in the dialects of Northern Europe ; " and, 

 according to Mr. Boyd Dawkins,* the same root occurs 

 in the name of the gigantic ox of the table-land of 

 Central India — the Gaur, Bos Gaurus. The names of 

 various countries and places are said to be also derived 

 from the same root ; while in the Runic alphabet of the 

 Anglo-Saxons, corresponding in a great measure to the 

 Scandinavian and the German, words (as among the 

 Hebrews, Greeks, &c.) being used to express letters, as 

 Hagl (Hail) for H., Nead (Need) for N., the letter U 

 is represented by Ur (Urus, or Wild Ox).f 



A considerable amount of trouble has been created 

 in all ages by various writers confusing the Urus with 

 the Bison, a contemporary animal, from which it is 

 " easily differentiated by various anatomical characters."! 

 This confusion has been increased by the similar 

 Teutonic names given to each : the Urochs and the 

 Aurochs. Yet the two are specifically distinct, and 

 will not breed together; and while it is clear that 

 domestic cattle have in every age sprung from the 

 Urus, the Bison has never been subjugated by man. It 

 only now exists in Europe in a forest of Lithuania, where 



* See Mr. Dawkins' paper on " British Fossil Oxen," Quarterly Journal 

 Geol. Soc. London, vol. xxii., 1866. 



t Tylor's " Early History of Mankind," p. 103. 

 X See Mr. Dawkins' paper as above. 



