THE WILD OX OF EUROPE 
Among many losses attributable, directly or indirectly, to 
the first French Revolution appears to be one which is 
absolutely irretrievable, and must ever remain a source of 
the deepest regret to the naturalist. Up to that time there 
were preserved in Alsace two huge horns commonly 
reputed to belong to the great extinct wild ox of Europe. 
The one was kept in the cathedral at Strassburg, the 
other in the episcopal palace at the neighbouring town of 
Zabern, or Saverne. The former was of great length 
(6 ft. 6 in.), and comparatively slender, while the second 
(which was mounted with silver and used as a drinking- 
horn) was also very large and apparently stouter. Its 
length is not given, but its capacity was so great that it 
would hold four litres of wine. 
The French naturalist Buffon, who saw the Strassburg 
specimen, believed that it was truly the horn of a wild 
ox, or aurochs, but this opinion is disputed by Prof. 
Nehring, of Berlin, who, on account of its great length and 
slenderness, considers that it belonged to a domesticated 
Hungarian bullock. This is confirmed by an ancient 
tradition that the horn in question was that of one of 
the oxen employed in carting stones for building the 
cathedral, and Dr. Nehring’s view may accordingly be 
accepted. 
On the other hand, the Zabern horn, whose capacity, as 
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