The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1913-01-23

err similar print was produced fourteen years
after bmy the Nurnberg engraver, Johann Sib-
macher, who etched nine other sporting plates.
Then follow, in rapid succession, half a dozen
portraits" by Tempesta, the pupil of Stradanus.
one of which prints we reproduce. 1t shows in
what awe the gigantic wild bull was held, for 1t
depicts a formidable-looking machine wherewith
the bull could be attacked and brought down.
Tempestas pictures need not be taken seriously,
for his Roman Studio" was nothing but a work
shop where apprentice hands turned out a vast
mass of prints of little or no value in an enquiry
of this sort. His English contemporary of the
pen, Edward Topsell, in his illustrated natural
history hodge-podge, called the Historic Of Foure-
Footed Beastes" (160O only added to the exist
ing confusion. "a Bison" he says, lis a beast
very strange as may appear by his figure pre-
fixed which by many authors is takeE for Urus,
some for a Bugle or wild oxe, others, for a
Rangifer, and many for the beast Tarantus or
Buffe.' And, to show that he really meant what
he said, he afixes a picture of what is unmistak-
ably a reindeer! Fortunately, however, he adds.
as pictures of the bison and of the aurochs, re-
pleas Of the two prints by Hirschvogel out Of
Herberstein's "Rerum Moscoviticarum Common.
tarii," which, as W. have already mentioned, are
among the most correct representations pub
lished at a period when the aurochs still existed.
In England, the belif that tn aurochs was a
bison-like creature continued throughout the
eighteenth century. The picture taken from Sam
uCA JU1uS SdCodI, puOl1ouSu al 4a46,
shows what extraordinary ignorance still pre-
vailed, the animal with antlers like an inverted
umbrella being a bison, or Bos germanus, and
the beast in the center an aurochs. The grayer
of Holzab Of Zurich, continues the misconcep-
ton; indeed, goes one better, for the bison is
here turned into an American aurochs." Of
numerous other illustrations of our two beasts,
we have not the space to speak at length. One
of the most characteristic Of the latter type Is
the socalled Hamilton Smith picture of the au-
rochs. This is a painting, dating, 1t is believed.
from the first quarter of the sixteenth century.
discovered in Augsburg not quite a hundred
years ago. This painting has mysteriously dis
appeared, but an accurate copy was made. For
the first modern picture Of the bison that ap-
peared in England we have also to go to Ger.
man sources, and, strangely enough, to the same
city, for it was Augsburg's most famous animal
painter, Ridinger (1697-176O, who drew the first
nfelike picture. A countryman Of his, one ]. S.
Muller, who lived many years in London, engrav-
ed, in 175s. a fine set of plates representing wild
animals after Ridinger's drawings from nature.
Among them is one of the bison, called by him
the buffalo, and underneath is a lengthy and
fairly correct description in English, which he
also copied from Ridinger. But this and other
isolated efforts have not entirely prevented the
dissemination of the old mistake, for living au.
thorities still tell us, quite seriously, that they
have grassed aurochs.