42 
THE OX AND ITS KINDRED 
while another entry relates to a reward paid to two 
Prussians for a second aurochs. Whether these 
animals were brought alive or dead is not stated ; 
but it is quite evident that the species was at this 
time living in the forests around Marienburg.^ A 
third entry, dated 7th April 1400, mentions one 
mark (equivalent to about thirteen shillings in 
modern money) being paid to a Lithuanian for bring- 
ing four aurochs from Duke Witowt, of Lithuania. 
That these must have been young animals is cer- 
tain, and it is also probable that they were tamed. 
They were brought with the request that they 
should be forwarded to Dantzic, and thence by sea 
to Burgundy ; and there are items recording the 
amounts paid for freight, fodder, attendance, etc., 
all of which go to prove that aurochs were then 
regarded as valuable animals. 
All this indicates that aurochs were still living 
in Prussia and Lithuania in 1400, and probably at 
least as late as 1409, although in Prussia, at any 
rate, they were becoming scarce. By 1400, or there- 
abouts, the species had, however, been exterminated 
in western Europe, and especially Germany, as 
there is no reference to its existence in literature, 
and its name soon became confounded with that of 
the bison. In fact, all tradition of its former exist- 
ence in this part of the Continent seemed to have 
been completely lost. As it was a forest-dwelling 
species, the destruction of the forests, which had by 
this time taken place, is alone sufficient to account 
for its extinction. P^or as the forests were felled and 
cleared, and their sites converted into cultivated 
ground, the aurochs would be driven into more and 
^ See ISIertens, o/>. cit, pp. 62, 63. 
