2IO THE OX AND ITS KINDRED 
existence in the Jaktorowka and other Pohsh forests 
in the time of Count Herberstein, that is to say, about 
the middle of the sixteenth century. Like the 
aurochs, the bison was gradually killed off in western 
Europe as cultivation and civilisation advanced, so 
that the range of the species became restricted 
to the more eastern and northern parts of the 
Continent. When it finally disappeared from France 
and western Germany does not appear to be known ; 
but there is evidence that the last East Prussian 
bison was killed by a poacher in the year 1755 
between Labiau and Tilsit.^ Eventually the species 
became restricted to the great forest of Bielowitza, 
in Lithuania — the modern Grodno — where the herd 
exists in a protected condition, and to certain parts 
of the Caucasus, where the animals are thoroughly 
wild, although protected by forest-laws. The exist- 
ence of these Caucasian bison was overlooked by 
the majority of English naturalists till late in the 
nineteenth century, although so early as 1842 
Professor David Low ^ wrote that bisons are still 
found in considerable herds in the woods of the 
Caucasus," adding that Nordmann had recorded that 
they existed in the greatest numbers in the district 
lying between the valleys of the Kuban and the Psib. 
According to later accounts, these wild bison are 
restricted to an area of some two hundred kilomc .res 
(125 miles) in diameter in the neighbourhood of the 
sources of the rivers Laba and Bjellaja, on the 
northern flank of the main range of the Caucasus, 
extending eastwards to the head-waters of the 
Zellentchak ; and even these are said to be scarce. 
^ A. Mertens, Museum fur Natur — und Heimatkunde^ 1906, p. 64. 
^ Domesticated Anifnals of the British Isles^ 2nd ed. p. 208. 
