1 2 Oxen
travelled frequently in Poland, and the figures of the two animals may be
regarded as having been executed under his own immediate supervision.
It has indeed been urged that the portrait of the aurochs is that of a
domestic bullock, but Messrs. Nehring and Schiemenz have conclusively
shown that this is not the case, and that the original the picture was a
wild Polish aurochs. In Herberstain’s time, that is to say at least as late
as the middle of the sixteenth century, the aurochs was preserved in a
single Polish forest, as is the bison at the present day in another. The
forest in question is that of Jaktorowka, situated about fifty-five kilometres
to the west-south-west of Warsaw in the districts of Bolemow and
Sochaczew. Other evidence is to the effect that the last survivor of the
herd in this forest was slain in the year 1 627. Regarding its survival in
other districts, a skull preserved for centuries in the castle of Bromberg,
Prussia, which shows three spear-wounds on the forehead, is - stated to
afford decisive evidence that the auroeh(lived- on in that part o f the
country at least as late as the twelfth os thirteenth century. It is further
evident that, like its cousin the bison, the aurochs was a forest-dwelling
animal.
Such being the case, it may be taken as practically certain that several
of the breeds of European cattle are the immediate descendants of the
aurochs. Calves of the latter were probably caught and tamed by the early
inhabitants of Europe, and their-progeny gave birth to some at least of the
present European breeds, for which there is accordingly no need to seek
an Eastern origin. That the domesticated breed would become smaller
than the wild ancestral race is only what might naturally be expected ; a
precisely analogous instance occurring in the yak, of which the race
domesticated in the Bhutan and Darjiling districts bear no comparison to
the wild animal, or even to the semi-domesticated breed kept bv the
nomads of the Rupshu plateau.
Although otherwise white, the half-wild Chillingham cattle usually
Aurochs * 3
have the muzzle and the inside of the ears reddish, whereas in the Cadzow
breed the same parts are black. In other European breeds various shades
of dun, fawn, and red, as well as black, are commonly met with ; and as
red or fawn is a lessgjjpecialised type o f coloration than black, it might
well have been thought that one of these was the predominant tint of
the aurochs. According, however, to the authors already referred to,
Herberstain’s woodcut and another ancient picture show that the ancient
wild ox of Europe was black. I f this is to be depended on, the reds and
duns of our domesticated breeds must apparently be regarded as a reversion
to the coloration of some older race.
Like the bison, the aurochilis known to have been common in the
Black Forest in the time of Julius Cassar ; and was of course still more
widely spread in earlier years. In Britain its remains, as already mentioned,
occur in deposits as late a;s thoseijf the fen districts, but none have hitherto
been identified in those dating from orgibsequent to the time of the
Roman occupation, when it would accordingly appear to have become
exterminated in England.
Little more can be added with regard to the characteristics ojf&the wild
aurochs, except that it must have been a huge animal, probably standing
at least six feet high at the shouldfjSsj and with horns not very unlike those
of the modern Chillingham cattle, only very much larger. The horns
usually have anButward and forwardl|eurvature at first, after which they
bend somewhat upwards and inwards. The following are the dimensions
of the horn-cores o f some of the splendid specimens collected by the late
Sir A. Brady from the brick-earth of Ilford, and now in the British
Museum
Museum Number. Length along
Outer Curve. Circumference. Tip to Tip.
4 5 . 4 M 3 6 1 7 2 8
4 5 . 4 2 5 . ? ?
1 6 , 5
4 5 , 4 2 6
H - 5 3 ° '
4 5 . 4 2 7 3 8 H 3 4