summer, being able to climb as well as an Elephant. Travelling Russians who passed through the country left it unnoticed; nay, even denied its existence, or considered it extinct, having found dozens of its horns amongst those preserved in old churches of Swanetia, which are now regarded as treasure-houses, and are under the care of the state. Many travellers, however, have confused the horns of the Bison with those of Egoceros pallasii.*

In Caucasia, as in Europe, the horns were used as drinkingvessels. At a feast given by a Caucasian noble in honour of General von Rosen, the table was graced with seventy Bisonhorns richly set in silver. Nehring, by the way, states (Neue Deutsche Jagd-Zeitung,' vii. p. 370) that a single horn holds barely 4 litres of liquor, much less than is contained by a horn of Bos primigenius. From a skin obtained by General von Rosen, both Brandt (Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscow, 1866) and Von Baer have judged the Caucasian Bison to be specifically identical withthe Lithuanian animal. †

The theory advanced by Ussow in the 'Proceedings of the Imperial Russian Acclimatisation Society,' 1865, and by Koch ('Reisen durch Russland,' ii. p. 70), that the Bisons of Caucasia and Lithuania are specifically distinct, is therefore no longer tenable.

In the Verhandlungen der Gesselschaft für Erdkunde,' Berlin, 1881, p. 38, we find a statement to the effect that Bison are still to be found "in some parts" of the above-mentioned mountains. Let us examine this more closely. Von Thielmann, in 1877 (Streifzüge im Kaukasus,' p. 108), located their original home in the watershed of the river Kuban, whence they probably wandered into Abkasia; this accounts for their being known there as dombai, dombe, or adompe. Gustav Radde (Zool. Garten, 1891, p. 320) does not confirm the statement that the Bison was smaller here than in Lithuania; and that indefatigable explorer had good opportunities for observing the beast which inhabited

'See 'Ausland,' 1888, p. 803, and Oliver Wardrop, Proc. Geogr. Soc. London, 1888, p. 807.

+ Neue Deutsche Jagd-Zeitung,' xiii. pp. 55, 116; 'Zoologische Garten,' vii. p. 350; ix. p. 216; Von Middendorf, Reise IV. ii. p. 1048; Petzholdt, 'Der Kaukasus,' p. 164. An amusing mistake occurs in a French translation of Brandt's paper, wherein his statement that the animal was found in herds (in Rudeln) is rendered "dans une localité nommé Rudeln ”

the district, when he visited the glacier heights of the Marucha Mountains, near the Pass of Nachar, on his way back from Elbruz in 1865.* On his last journey through the district surrounding the sources of the Laba and Bjellaja, north of the Caucasus, and thence to the source of the Selentschück, he found Bison, but everywhere in small numbers, not more than two or three together, and on one occasion traces of seven. The arrival of fresh colonists had caused them to forsake their settled habits, and to take to wandering. He frequently met with them, however, about the source of the Little Laba, and especially near the western tributary Uruschtem, and the small lake of Alaus at an altitude of 7-8000 feet. Some thirty or forty years previously they had been found at a height of 5000 feet. The whole district of about 525,000 hectares has been under imperial control since 1860, but it is very difficult to guard against poachers. † In the museum at Tiflis there is a unique and beautiful group, set up under Radde's supervision, which represents a fight between a Bison and a Panther. ‡

In earlier times Bison europeus was probably distributed over the greater part of the forest zone within the present boundaries of European Russia, as well as on the steppes; but, like its North American relative, it has gradually disappeared, and is now confined (so far as Europe is concerned) to a single forest district in Lithuania. Augustus III. of Poland, Kurfürst of Saxony, made a reserve, some thirty square miles in extent, for Bison at Bialowicza, in the present government of Grodno, on the Prussian frontier, out of a forest which lay surrounded by desert steppes. § Franz Müller (Mittheil. der Geogr. Gessels. Wien, 1859, p. 155) gives an exact plan of the whole area, which was enclosed by a strong wooden fence more than three metres high. In one place a stand was erected for the King and his distinguished guests, so that the sportsmen might be safely out of

Petermann's 'Mittheilungen,' 1867, p. 13; 1868, p. 72.
Deutsche Jäger-Zeitung,' xxii. p. 49,

'Jahresbericht des Vereins für Erdkunde,' Dresden, xv. p. 15.

§ Deutsche Jäger-Zeitung,' xxi. p. 287; Eichwald, Beiträge zur Kenntniss des russischen Reichs,' vi. pp. 137, 244; Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Geographie,' iii. p. 138 (fide Brandt); Zoologische Garten,' vii. p. 350; xiv. p. 21.

the way of the beasts they were to slay. Twenty paces from this stand was an opening in the fence, through which the animals were driven. There could be surely no great skill required in shooting at a driven herd from so short a distance, but merely the brutal enjoyment of killing a large number of animals-a trait which unfortunately is not yet extinct, as the massacres of modern times in North America and South Africa have shown. At the period referred to, on a great hunting day, forty-two head have been killed, of which the Queen alone killed twenty, and found time (it is said) to read a novel whilst waiting for the beaters to come up!

Statistics as to the number of Bison then existing are of a doubtful character. In 1829, 711 head were reported, including 633 adult animals; in 1830, 772; in 1881, 657; in 1853, 1543; in 1857, 1898; in 1866, according to a Government report, from 1500 to 2000, but according to the foresters, only 500; in 1882, 600; in 1886, 433; in 1889, 380; and in 1892, 491. The noticeable diminution of numbers, notwithstanding the large amount expended on their preservation, is due to untrustworthy management, the forest grant being unjustifiably appropriated, and poachers allowed to take what they liked. The responsible "woodwards" invented all sorts of diseases and epidemics to account for the disappearance of the game.

This tract of forest has now for some years belonged to the Apanage Department, and the numbers no longer decrease. A purely military guard has superseded the foresters.* After many experiments, mostly with negative results, any young motherless Bison, Elk, and Red-deer that are found are now brought up on cow's milk. For calves of from one to two months old this is mixed with an equal quantity of warm water, which is gradually diminished. After four months they take to bruised oats. As the milk easily turns sour, and is then said to cause intestinal inflammation, eight or ten teaspoonfuls of infused tea are added to each half-litre. The latest protégés of the superintendent, a fine strong bull Bison and four cows, were sent to Pless as a present in February, 1893.

From Bialowicza, as well as from the Caucasus, living

*Zoologische Garten,' vii. p. 850; Neue Deutsche Jagd-Zeitung,' vi. p. 134; x. p. 278; xiii. p. 186; ‘Deutsche Jäger-Zeitung,' xx. p. 123; xxi. p. 127.

specimens have been forwarded to various Zoological Gardens, and dead ones sent to museums. The specimen in the Tiflis Museum has been already referred to; one was sent from Bialowicza to the Copenhagen museum, and a skin of another, killed by a Berlin animal painter at Bialowicza, was presented by the Czar to the Gottingen Museum.

In order to become acquainted with new haunts and higher feeding-ground the Bison must have been forced to quit their original haunts many years ago. Probably they were captured in the manner described by Pausanias (x. 13. 2), and transported to Rome to take part in the public spectacles of Domitian.

Voigt, in his 'History of Prussia' (i. p. 544), states that at that time both Bison and Elk were numerous in the forests of Prussia, and that both were occasionally caught and sold into foreign lands, including Italy. Polish nobles kept them in their parks at Ostrolenka, Warsaw, Zamosk, &c. Frederick III., Kurfürst of Saxony, sent for Elk and Bison from Lithuania, and established them in various deer-parks, as well as at Berlin. In 1689 they were turned out into the unenclosed hunting-ground, but did not flourish, and all attempts to make them do so proved unsuccessful.

In 1717 two were sent to the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, but they also speedily succumbed.

The Prince of Pless owns the largest and most important game-preserve in which imported Bison are now to be found. About a century after the last Bison in Prussia had been killed by two poachers in 1755, the Prince of Pless re-introduced the species, sending the Czar some Red-deer in exchange for a threeyear-old bull and three cows, which he turned into the great deer-forest of Emanuelsegen, six hundred hectares in extent. By 1874, some twenty years later, they and their descendants had wandered two miles southwards, into the district of Mezenzitz.* Later on fresh blood was introduced by the importation of other animals from Bialowicza. In 1885 the number of the herd was twelve, of which six were bulls, four cows, and two calves under

* See the Report on this park to 1890 by the head forester Wild, in 'Neue Deutsche Jäger-Zeitung,' x. p. 235; also 'Der Deutsche Jäger,' vi. p. 119; and 'Der Zoologische Garten,' vii. p. 350.

a year old.* In winter each animal receives 10 kilos. of good meadow hay with 2 kilos. of oats; now and then, instead of the latter, bark mixed with flour and meal are given. Trials of lupin and barley were not successful, as both digested badly.

The shooting of Bison by the Czar and by royal visitors is always duly reported in the sporting papers. The technical names for Bison in use at Pless are probably very ancient: zeber for bull, zubszica for cow, czelen for calf. In old German hunting terminology, the cow was tier, the calf auer-kalb or tier-kalb, the bull hörner, gehörn, waffen, and at Pless aufsatz (head-piece). None of these terms are included in Dombrowski's 'Deutsche Waidmanns-sprache.'

The animals in the park at Schönbrunn, presented by the Czar from Bialowicza, are said to have flourished and increased.

For a notice of the Bison in the Berlin Zoological Gardens, see Bodinus, 'Die Tierwelt des Zool. Gartens,' ed. 1871, p. 95, and 'Die Gartenlaube,' 1864, p. 7 10, with an illustration. The Bison in the Dresden Zoological Gardens did not come direct from Bialowicza, but from Schönbrunn, the Emperor Franz Joseph having presented a three-year-old bull and a two-year-old cow. The cow had a calf in 1860, but it was badly treated and finally trampled upon by its parents. A second calf survived. Only one cow is now to be found there, which was born in the seventies.

Bison were sent to London to George IV., and also in 1848 and 1860 to Queen Victoria, though the pair last sent did not come straight from Bialowicza, but had been kept at Grodno for a time.

In November, 1868, according to the latest List of the Vertebrate Animals,' a living European Bison was received at the Zoological Gardens of London, which was born in the Amsterdam Gardens on July 14th, 1865.

The Empress Katharine had long before received some in 1738, and a pair went to St. Petersburg in 1860, which had also been kept at Grodno for a time.

The Zoological Gardens at Moscow even possessed a Caucasian Bison, which was captured by Adjeff, near Ateik har, and safely conveyed to Moscow with great difficulty on Dec. 19th, 1866. In the same year there was also one of northern origin there, received from the Zoological Garden of Gatschina.

*Neue Deutsche Jagd-Zeitung,' v. p. 314. It is erroneously stated in the Landwirth, Zeitung des Hamb. Korrespondenten,' 1884 (p. 54), that in this year the number rose to 30-40.