Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life and Art

by Henry Fairfield Osborn

'UROCHS,' OR 'AUEROCHS,' AND 'WISENT'

Kobelt[BG] discusses the habits of the wild cattle and of the bison as follows:

"One is inclined to consider the ancient wild cattle of Europe, the Urochs, or Auerochs, as the inhabitants of boggy forests. The Auerochs survived to the seventeenth century in the forests of Poland and then became extinct. It is described as of a black color with a light stripe along the back.

"The bison, or Wisent, is generally regarded as the inhabitant of the open steppe, or at least of dryer, opener woods; it differs so little from the American bison that both can be considered only as races of one species, the Bison priscus of Pleistocene times, which spread over the temperate zone of both hemispheres. The American bison has always avoided the woods and roamed the prairies in countless herds. But all reliable historic records describe the Wisent as a forest animal, and its few remaining survivors are entirely limited to the forests. Apparently it was never so widely and generally distributed as the Auerochs and reached western Europe later, for it is not found in the north, and never in conjunction with the mammoth and rhinoceros. Remains of the bison have also been found in Asia Minor. In Lithuania the bison lives together in herds, resenting the approach of all strangers. In the Caucasus it lives wild in certain high valleys and here it is a true mountain animal, its favorite haunts being the forests of beech, hornbeam, and evergreens from 4,000 to 8,000 feet above sea-level. Only in winter does it descend to lower levels. It is uncertain whether the Wisent does not also occur in Siberia. Kohn and Andree assert positively that it is found in large numbers in the wooded mountains of Sajan, in Siberia (1895)."

According to Kobelt, much confusion in the nomenclature of these animals has resulted from the fact that, after the extinction of the 'Urochs,' or 'Auerochs,' in the seventeenth century, the term 'Auerochs' was frequently used by writers as synonymous with 'Wisent,' or bison, an entirely different animal.

NOTE V

THE CRÔ-MAGNONS OF THE CANARY ISLANDS[BH]

"In the museums of the Grand Canary, Teneriffe, and Palma a considerable number of prehistoric vessels are preserved. Anthropologists are agreed that the natives of the archipelago at the time of its conquest, in the fifteenth century, were a composite people made up of at least three stocks: a Crô-Magnon type, a Hamitic or Berber type, and a brachycephalic type. These natives were in a Neolithic stage of civilization. Their arms were slings, clubs, and spears. Most of the people went naked, except for a girdle round the loins, and there was no intercommunication between the islands. Their stone implements were of obsidian or of basalt. Only four polished axes are known from the Grand Canary and one from Gomera. The axes are of chloromelanite, and of a type contemporary with megalithic structures in France. The first colonists probably brought the knowledge of making pottery with them, but each island developed an individuality of its own. Even the painted ware of the Grand Canary appears to be of local origin and not due to external influence. Although undoubted Lybian inscriptions in the Grand Canary and lava querns of Iron Age type prove that the archipelago was visited before its conquest by the Spaniards without affecting the general civilization of its inhabitants."

GUANCHE CHARACTERISTICS RESEMBLING CRÔ-MAGNON[BI]