The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Aurochs

AUROCHS, the bos bison of Europe, one of the contemporaries of the mammoth (elephas primigenius), an animal of the ox family, once abundant, but now existing only in the forests of Lithuania belonging to the czar of Russia, and possibly in the Caucasus. It would long ago have become extinct but for the protection of man. The ure-ox (B. urus or B. primigenius), found in the post-tertiary deposits, is believed to be the same as was described by Cæsar in his Commentaries as abounding in the forests of Germany; it existed in Switzerland as late as the 16th century. Both species are found abundantly in the post-tertiary of Europe, and corresponding species in America, and no doubt furnished a large share of the food of prehistoric man.