The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1913-01-25


.AAHcHzZE EIAz1EzCKC. EW AzMU1Hy> EzU
Az3zU170 EHnN%SzH N5I-z650)
sgEssn~o HE differentiation between these
I two animals is subject Of unusual
I4 interest to the sportsman natural
"a y list. TO trace the origin Of the
- popular misconception that the two
CI7s""- Yf IA | names are synonymous, mistake
III NMAJ j to which even of best
@3W%T known sportsmen of today must
~ |WA Il | plead guilty, we, have to dive into
| C>&A@..O the not always limpid depths Of
early medieval history For the
event which has probably more to
do than any other with the PRONUNCIATION of this
was the famous hunt given by Charlemagne
the ambassadors of Haroun- all ashd in the
dank Hercyian woods that surrounded his hunt
ing lodge, Heristallum. According to the original
account by the monk Eginhard Of st. GALL the
aurOchs of such terrornstilling appearance
to the men from the east that they could not
bear the sight of them, and fed from the
emperors side. The latter, attacked by the ferc-
est Of these monsters, missed the vital spot,
with the result that before brave Isambart could
Stay it the emperor slightly wounded in the
thigh and had his neither garment torn into
shreds Rushing to his SIDE the assembled cour-
tiers offered to divert themselves of their own
hose but the emperor laughingly rejected their
offers, declaring that he intended to show him.
self in his sorry plight to the fair Hdegarde
who was great huntress herself Needless to
say, this adventure proved a medieval "scoop"
of the gaudiest kind, but in the course of un-
numbered retellings the aurochs became a wi
sent, as was called the European bison, and since
that time perpleXing confusion has reigned be-
tween these two animals That the true aurochs
which became extinct three hundred years ago,
was entirely different animal from the bison
whose name, alas! is also on the list of animals
about to share the auroch's fate. is now a fact
known to all scientific men. To the writer the
poor old bsons pathetic fate appeals more par
ticuarly, for when shooting in the Rockies in
the seventies of last century he still saw them in
herds Of ten thousand. But the men who can
claim to have the same marvellous sight
will before long follow these lordy inhabitants
Of the wilds to the happy hunting grounds the
study Of the past history of these two species
has for some people unusual attractions And
not the least interesting phase of it is the col
lectng OF pictures made at time when both
beasts were still roaming the wastes of
the earth" or had but recently disappeared.
OF the earliest Of all pictures of what was prob
ably meant to be the bison, an interesting arti-
Gle which recently appeared in an illustrated week
ly In which the roof pictures in the Altamira
Cave were reproduced, gave one capital idea
After gap of untold centuries we reach the
various pictorial records left to us by the CHS
els, gravers brushes of the classic ages
Among those who have made important discoy-
cries respecting the distribution Of the aurochs
Professor Conrad Keller the well-known Zurich
zoolog1st, occupies prominent place. His dis
coveries in the ruins of the ancient palace of
King Minos in Crete of fewer than sixteen
horn-cores and skull of what unquestionably
the original wild OK of Europe or aurochs
show that it lived there at period and that
the famous legend of the minotaur has a sub
stratum of truth. From his pages we borrow an
Illustration of an important fresco in Knossos de-
plotting an aurochs in the act of impaling help
lesslookng victim, while bold bulfghter is
actually turning a somersault over the back of
the beast, third possibly female ooker-on at
tempting to seize the bulls tail, the scene being
prooaoly enacted In an arena 1t is possible that
the Theseus story from the slaughter of
captives in such exhibitions. Several other Dic-
lures have been recently discovered which be-
long to the Minos period, j. e., between 1000 and
1900 B. c. Professor Kellers highly instructive
writings contain many other illustrations of Bos
primifenius.
Skipping tens of centuries we reach the Bes-
tiaries, the most ancient of which originated in
the period touched at the outset when speak
Ing of Charlemagnes aurochs-hunt These ex.
ceedingly primitive pictorial records do not add
much to our information "the choice hurts one'
as Germans describe that state of uncertainty in
regard to what the monastc artists meant to
represent by their crude attempts. Skipping a
few more centuries, we at last reach, in the be-
ginning of the fifteenth century fairly intelligent
accounts OF the animals habitat and are fur.
nshed with drawings presenting features sufn-
GENTLY distinctS to Indicate even to eyes accus-
toned to Photographic accuracy, the identity of
the animal the picture means to represent.
Very curious is the circumstance to which.
by the way, nobody has so far drawn attention,
that none of the French sporting books of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, such as s.Roy
Modus,'' Castor Phoebus," "Gace de la Buigne"
and "FontainesGuerin" mentions either the