6424 Notice of the various 



in the peat-bogs, being here distinctly indicated. "Wide-horned" 

 might indeed suit the Bison priscus type, of a long anterior and far 

 ante-human period, but is much more applicable to the great extinct 

 taurine than to the modern type of bison. Again, Professor Owen, in 

 common with the other writers on the subject, quotes a very famous 

 couplet, as follows : — " It is remarkable that the two kinds of great 

 wild oxen recorded in the ' Niebelungen Lied' of the twelfth century, 

 as having been slain with other beasts of chase in the great hunt of the 

 forest of Worms, are mentioned under the same names which they 

 received from the Romans. 



' Dar nach schlouch er schiere, einen wisent und einen elcb, 

 S tardier ure viere, und einen grinimen schelch. 



' After this he straightway slew a bison and an elk, 

 Of the strong uri four, and a single fierce schelch.' " 



Which last is believed by some to be the famous so-called c Irish 

 elk' of common parlance, though Owen is decidedly opposed to that 

 opinion, while offering no other suggestion beyond an allusion to the 

 superstitious fables which abound in that romance. Other authors 

 would identify the schelch with a lynx ! 



The fact is, that the Roman names are derived obviously from the 

 Teuton. As Professor Nilsson remarks, " The denomination 'urox' 

 is derived from the language which the Germanic race seems to have 

 had in common in the earliest times, and signifies 'forest ox,' wild ox 

 (Bos sylvestrisj, for ' ur' or ' or' signifies * forest' or c wood,' ' wilder- 

 ness,' and is still used in many places in Sweden, Norway and Iceland. 

 * * * Also, in the older German, • ur' signifies ' wood,' ' forest,' 

 but has, in compositions of later times, been changed to ' auer ; ' ex. gr. 

 'auerochs,' auerhahn. The Romans, when in Germany, first heard 

 the word * urocs,' and as they generally changed all names after the 

 fashion of their language, turned it into ' urus.' The uroxen which 

 were conveyed to Rome, and highly prized in the bull-fights of the 

 circus, were by the ignorant confounded with the African Antilopine 

 'bubalis,' — an error which Pliny notices; for example: — 



" Illi cessit atrox bubalus atque bison." — Martial, Sped. 23. 



" By our forefathers in Scandinavia, as well as in Germany, this wild 

 animal is, however, not called ' urox,' but ' ur,' or c ure,' as in the poem 

 of the 'Niebelungen,' — thence ' ura-hom' in our old Sagas. In cer- 

 tain provinces an angry bull is still called ( ure.' The canton of Uri, 



