Feb. 4, 1898.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



99 



unrivalled anywhere in New England, and I never pass 

 one of these deserted farms without seeing its possibili- 

 ties and without my heart reaching after puny boys and 

 girls in ppnt-up city quarters who would thrive in body 

 and mind under the bummer skies in the liberty, fresh- 

 ness and beauty of these surroundings. 



Mrs. Annie A. Preston. 

 Maple Cohner, WilliDgton, Conn. 



THE EUROPEAN BISON. 



BY E WAliDEEK. 



r pHE animal moat nearly allied to the American buf- 

 JL falo is the European "bison, loosely called the old 

 German aurochs, and to day termed in the German and 

 Russian languages, iv&s&iit, an animal which about a 



mous size, and the whole forest still presents the same 

 aspect that it did more than a thousand years ago. 



The gigantic trees are never felled by man. Thpy are 

 overthrown only by heavy storms, and rot where they 

 fall, giving room, light and food to the younger trees 

 growing up beneath them, which thus seem to rejoice 

 in the death of their fellows. Here aad there among the 

 forest are found wide meadows or parks, where grow 

 different kinds of grass and herbs mingled with heath 

 and underwood. These plants furnish ample food for 

 the gigantic inhabitants of the woods. 1 These open spaces 

 are usually the result of fires which often take place. 

 Only here and in the Caucasus in Asia is the bison to be 

 found to-day. Over all the rest of the globe he has be- 

 come extinct, and had not the Emperors of Russia care- 

 fully protected him for centuries, he would to-day be no 

 longer ranked among the existing animals of Europe. 



Many years ago it was different. Then the bison was 

 scattered over the greater part of Europe and Asia. In 

 the palmy days of ancient Greece, it was found in Paonia 

 and in what is now called Bulgaria, and everywhere in 



not so much so as in your buffalo. The horns arc 

 placed at the side of the head and grow at first horizon- 

 tall v outward, then turning upward with the points 

 slightly turned in. They are a little longer than the horns 

 of your buffalo. The body is covered with a thick coat of 

 light brown curled hair; the head, feet and shoulders be- 

 ing dark brown and the tassel at the end of the tail black. 

 The hair on the head is very long and straight, and the 

 beard reaches nearly to the ground, and continues under 

 the throat down to the breast. 



The bison cow is much smaller than the bull. Her color 

 is the same, but the horns are shorter and lighter and the 

 mane is less developed. A new born calf is much lighter 

 in color. 



In the year 1829 a count of the bison iu the Bialowitza 

 forests gave '711 head, of which 683 were old ones and the 

 remainder calves. 



In the following year, 1830, the number increased to 

 722, but in the next year, 1831, it was reduced to 657. 

 The laws for its protection were more severely enforced 

 from this on, and in consequence thn number of bison in- 



THE EUROPEAN BISON. 



thousand years ago inhabited the whole of Germany. 

 Austria, Hungary and Russia. 



Though this animal is commonly called by the people, 

 aurochs, this is not its proper name. The aurochs was quite 

 a different animal which became extinct many years 

 ago. About it we know little more than can be gathered 

 from examination of its fossil bones and from the descrip- 

 tions of old Roman and German writers, such as Seneca, 

 Pliny, Albertus Migmn, Thomas Cintapratensis. J Vhann 

 von Marignola, B irtholom^us Anglicus, Paul Zidek, 

 von Herberstein and Gessner. The old German laws 

 and hunting reports also speak of two different kinds of 

 wild oxen, and the celebrated l< Niebelungenlied" also 

 speaks of them. Pliny says that the bison or bonasus 

 was frequently brought alive to Romo, where it showed 

 its enormous strength in the bull fights. He further 

 says that the hison was remarkable for its long mane, and 

 the aurochs (Urus) for its horns. Writing of Germany, 

 Cse'ar says -'there is a kind of wild ox much Hike our 

 domestic cattle, only with much longer horns." This 

 refers to the aurochs. Lucas David writes that in the 

 year 1240, Otto of Brunswick presented to bis brother 

 some bison and some aurochsen. Cramer says that 

 Prince Wradislaw killed in the year 1364 in Pomerania 

 a bison which was nearly as large as* an aurochs. Herber- 

 stein gives a figure of the bison and one of the aurochs, 

 the latter closely resembling <he donipstie bull. Under 

 this picture is written " I am Urus, called in Poland, Tur, 

 and in Germany Aurochs." This is about the last definite 

 information we have about the Urus. Dr. Cunrat Forex 

 in the year 1583 writes about the urus or aurochs, but 

 speaks of it as a species which has died out. 



All old writers speak very highly of the meat of the 

 bison as also of that of the aurochs. The skin was also 

 highly prized, and was used for girdles and other orna- 

 ments for ladies of high rank, and even princesses and 

 queens were glad to wear them. 



To-day in Europe we find the European bison living 

 wild only in the western part of Russia, in the extensive 

 forest of Bialowitzi. Bialowesch or Bialowiez, where it 

 is carefully protected by the Russian government. This 

 almost pathless forest is ab<->ut 35 miles long. and 30 wide, 

 comprising a diatrict of 1,050 square miles in which are 

 to be found only a few log houses for the use of forest 

 guards, though some small villages adjoin the bor- 

 ders of the wood. About f our- fifths of the forest consists 

 of pine, but in some places where the ground is moist, 

 we find, also the fir tree, oak, lime, hornbeam, birch, 

 alder, poplar and willow mingled with the pines. All 

 the trees which grow here reach a great age and enor- 



Middle Europe. Aristotle gives an exact description of 

 him and calls him honasus. Pliny terms him bison and 

 names Germany as his home. C-ilpernius in his "L°ges 

 Allamanorum" writes about him in the year 282 and 

 states that he found him in Wasgau (Alsatia). Charles 

 the G-eat, of Germany, in the year 800 hunted bison with 

 soear and axe in the* Hartz Mountains, and in Saxony. 

 By the year 1373 it had bpen driven back to Pomerania, 

 in the fifteenth century to Prussia, east and west: in the 

 sixteenth as far as Lithuania; in the eighteenth to the 

 eastern part of Prussia between Tilsit and Laubiau, where 

 the last of the race was killed by a poacher in 1755. 



The Kings of Poland tried hard to preserve the bison. 

 They built barns and feeding places in the middle of the 

 forests in order to winter these animals, feeding them 

 hay. Sometimes the royal order was issued to capture 

 bison alive, and these were presented to kings and prin- 

 cps. In this way two were given in the year 1717 to the 

 Duke of Hes3e Cassel; two others in 1738 to King George 

 of England, and some to the Empress Catherine of Russia. 

 Notwithstanding the efforts to preserve it, the bison dis- 

 appeared pntirely from Poland. In the forests and moun- 

 tains of Transylvania in Hungary, it existed longer than 

 in Prussia and* Poland. We read in old books that in 1728 

 there were still many of them in the Szekler forest, close 

 to the sma'l village of Fiille. 



The descriptions of the bison (Bison bonasus) which 

 have been given us by ancient writers leads us to conclude 

 that the bison of to-day has diminished in size, though he 

 is still a strong and mighty animal. We are told that in 

 the year 1555 a bison bull was killed in Prussia which 

 measured 7ft. lOin, at the withers, was 14ft. in length and 

 weighed 2,085^lbs. To-day, however, bison are not 

 generally found heavier than from 1,700 to 1.8001bs. with 

 a height of 6ft., and a length of from 10 to 11. 



For many years it has been stated that one remarkable 

 difference between the bison and the American buffalo, 

 is that the former has only 14 pairs of ribs while the 

 buffalo has 15 pairs. As nas been shown by Dr. Allen, 

 this statement is entirely erroneous. The American 

 buffalo has 14 pairs of ribs like the bison. 

 The head of the bison is of moderate size and well formed ; 

 forehead arched and very broad; the nose is round: the 

 ears round and short; the eyes small and fuli of light and 

 fire; the neck short, thick and very muscular and, with a 

 mane or dewlap l-wdow, which reaches from the chin: to 

 the breast. The body is round and plump; the forelegs 

 short but very strong and with oval hoofs; the hoof s of 

 bind feet are much smaller than those of the front. - The 

 back of the bison is highly arched over the shoulders but 



creased until in 1857 there were 1882 head. Soon after 

 this, during a revolt, many bison were killed hyithe people, 

 and thft last census of this animal, held in I860, gave only 

 about 550 bison, including cows and calves. 



[TO BE CONTINUED.] 



A VACATION IN WEST FLORIDA. 



THE evening train from the North ran in to Tampa, the 

 brightest, most energetic, prosperous looking town 

 we had seen in Florida. In the fading western light the 

 Moorish towers of the great Tampa Bay Hotel showed 

 dimly, the electric lamps shone on clean looking brick 

 blocks, which bore the unmistakable stamp of a boom- 

 ing city. Over the Hillsborough River, out on the tongue 

 of land between the two great arms of the bay, and so on 

 to a long low trestle-work, of which we were made aware 

 in the darkness by the peculiar rumble of the train and 

 the phosphorescent gleam of quiet waves below and 

 around us. A few minutes more and we were at Port 

 Tampa and were ushered into "The Inn." 



The aforesaid we consisted of my companion, a young 

 and enthusiastic eonchologist and all around naturalist, 

 and myself; and our objpet in visiting the west coast of 

 the State was to spend the holidays in making natural 

 hiptory collections. 



Next morning a strange sight greeted the eye. We 

 were in a city built wholly on piles, a city which vaguely 

 suggested Venice, the dwellings in Lake Maracaybo, or 

 of the prehistoric tribes of Switzerland. Railway depot, 

 stores, hotels, dwellings, and all the various buildings 

 and appurtenances of a town were elevated on piling 5ft. 

 above the clear water, through which we saw fishes, 

 crabs and gleaming shells, the whole at least three-quar- 

 ters of a mile from the shore. 



Our hotpl was a gem in its way, built and finished 

 wholly of Southern pine, one of the most beautiful woods 

 for decorative purposes in the world, when properly 

 selected and varnished. It seems strange that the people 

 of the United States have so generally .neglected it; the 

 only reason perhaps being its commonness and cheapness. 

 When the long-leaved southern pine shall have become 

 well nigh extinct it will no doubt be properly appreci- 

 ated. 



Around us lay the low shores of Tampa Bay, to the 

 south and west the Gulf of Mexico. Our destination was 

 the Manatee River, which, by one of those strange con- 

 tradictions in geographical nomenclature, is not a river 

 at all, but an arm of Tampa Bay, a beautiful sheet of 

 water a mile or more in width and some eight or ten in 



