Page:The Evolution of British Cattle.djvu/21

 The ancestors of the British wild cattle were therefore mighty and untameable monsters of unconquerable ferocity, and none could be found more likely than the Uri of the Hercynian forest in Western Germany. Cæsar describes three extraordinary animals there: first, a stag-like ox, with a horn springing from the middle of its forehead between the ears. Next, an elk with no knots or joints in its legs, which could not lie down. If it fell by accident it could not get up again, and, so, it must recline against trees by way of going to bed, a habit which was its undoing, for the Germans of those days undermined or weakened the trees and, so, captured the elks that leant against them and fell. Last, the Uri.

"The third of these three beasts are called Uri. In size they are a trifle smaller than elephants; in kind, colour, and shape they are bulls. Great is their strength and great their speed; nor, having espied them, do they spare either men or beasts. They are sedulously captured in pits and slain: the young men hardening themselves by such toil and training themselves by this kind of sport: and they who have killed most Uri, proclaimed as such by the horns being exhibited in public, receive great commendation. But it is not possible to accustom the Uri to men or to tame them, not