The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

260 RUSSIA IX EUROPE.and representing a fauna which tradition and the chronicles speak of as existingon the banks of the Dnieper and in Central Russia in the historic period. TheCaucasian and Lithuanian specimens are now the only survivors of the vast herdsat one time spread over the whole of East Europe. Those of Bela-Veja areprotected by severe laws, and the Czar alone occasionally presents a few to friendlyprinces or zoological gardens. In the beginning of the century there were about1,000, and in 1851 1,400, since when the want of fodder and the wolves haveFig. 123.—LI5IIT3 OF THE CATHOLIC AND ORTHODOX RELIGIONS IN LITHUANIA.Scile 1 : 4,443,000.*&Orthodox Greek. Eoman Catholic. Protestant. Mohammedan.reduced them by about one-half. They are often erroneously confounded with theaurochs, which still existed in large numbers three centuries ago, but which hassince been entirely exterminated.The Lithuanian Race and Language.The Lithuanians, long classed with the Slavs, whom they resemble in manyrespects, formerly occupied, with their Prussian and Kur kinsmen, all the Baltic