60 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
In 1828 Brincken remarks that: ^‘a la fin de la derniere guerre le 
nombre des Bisons etait diminu4 jusqu^ a se reduire a 300.’^ 
Nevertheless in 1826 from 700 to 800 were counted; in 1829, 711; 
in 1830, 772; but in 1831, probably in consequence of revolutionary 
movements, 657 only. For the next fifty years this average must 
have been maintained; for in 1884r-1885, 500, and in 1891, 479, were 
quoted. Thereupon a ukase of the 3/15 February, 1892, gave absolute 
protection to the wisents for all time, so that at the beginning of the 
present century more than 1200 are mentioned. In the following 
years severe epidemics broke out, so that only 727 remained in 1914. 
The war was naturally disastrous, so that when the German admin- 
istration of the forest started, scarcely 160 remained. Since this event 
the wisents were counted every month as far as possible, and in March, 
1917, the count showed 121, consisting of 18 old and 18 young bulls, 
30 old and 36 young cows, and 19 calves. In 1918, after 30 square 
kilometers of the forest had been reserved as a natural sanctuary, the 
herd seems to have increased to 170 or 180 head. 
The German efforts to protect the wisent began in March, 1915, 
when Professor Conwentz, head of the “Staathche Stelle ftir Naturden- 
kmalpflege in Preussen” (Prussian Bureau for the Protection of Nature) 
called the attention of several army commanders in the East to the 
endangering of the wisent. The ninth army therefore caused a strict 
prohibition of wisent shooting to be issued, and on October 1, 1915, 
Captain (later Major) Escherich, a Bavarian Forstrat (forest commis- 
sioner), was appointed commander and head of the German forest 
administration of the occupied district. 
Owing to the energetic efforts of this active and experienced forest 
official complete protection of the remainder of the wisent herd in this 
extensive forest, the inaccessible recesses of which rendered any con- 
trol extremely difficult, was finally carried through. 
As early as September 25, 1915, a ruhng regarding hunting was 
issued by Lieutenant-General von Seckendorff, which declared: ^‘We 
desire to preserve the Wisent herds as far as possible, although this is 
enemy territory, so as to convey to posterity a Natural Monument of 
pecuhar value. Thus the best hopes for the future were entertained, 
but then came the collapse of the German power and the revolution of 
November, 1918. On December 16, 1918, shortly after the revolution. 
Major Escherich wrote to the ‘‘Staathche Stelle’^: “In consequence of 
the events of the past weeks the mihtary forest administration can no 
longer exercise any control over the protection of game in the forest 
