LECTURE XIII.' 397 



that tlie present races are descended from originally distinct 

 species, wliicli intermixed with, each other and with various 

 foreign types. 



As regards horned-cattle, there occur in the pile-works of 

 the stone period two wild species of gigantic size, the TJrus fBos 

 primigeniusj and Wisent f Bison EuropceusJ , whilst the Urns 

 only has hitherto been found in the Danish kitchenmiddens, 

 and the different beds of France (Amiens, Aurignac) associated 

 with the remains of man. The Urus was unquestionably a 

 contemporary of the mammoth and of the rhinoceros with the 

 bony septum, the teeth of it having been found with those of 

 other species of elephants and rhinoceros (Rhinoceros leptorhi- 

 nus) , in the slate coals of Diirnten. In earlier pile-works, 

 the bones of wild animals, such as those of deer, are much 

 more abundant than those of cattle, but subsequently the 

 latter preponderate, a proof that the settlers gradually turned 

 from the chase to agriculture. According to Riitimeyer's re- 

 searches, the Frisian race of oxen, which in size are not much 

 behind their gigantic progenitors, are descendants from the 

 urus. It almost seems as if the domestication of the urus, 

 which was hunted, according to the Nibelungen song, in the 

 forests of Worms, was merely attempted in the stone period, 

 but soon abandoned in favour of other races. In the north, 

 however, the breeding was continued down to recent times, 

 and produced in marshy regions that race which even now 

 exceed in size all other bovine races. 



The Bison, Aurochs or Wisent, has evidently a more limited 

 sphere than the urus; its relics have, as yet, not been found 

 associated with those of the mammoth and the rhinoceros — it 

 is only in the peat that they occur with those of the Irish elk. 

 The Wisent has never been tamed, though it was in histo- 

 rical times spread over central Europe, and is mentioned by 

 the side of the Urus in Siegfried's Chase (ISTibelungen song). 

 The Bison always was a chase animal ; it still exists in the forest 

 of Bialowice in a single herd of about eight hundred animals, 

 which, no doubt, has been much diminished during the pi-esent 

 insurrection. 



"Under the name Bos longifrons," says Riitimeyer, "Owen has 



