American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1913-01-30

event which has probably more to
do than any other with the PRONUNCIATION of this
error was the famous hunt given by Charlemagne
to the ambassadors of Haroun-al-Rashid 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 were Of such terrorinstilling appearance
to the men from the east that they could not
even 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 1t the emperor was slightly wounded in the
thigh and had his neither garment torn into
snreds. 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 Hildegarde.
who was a great huntress herself. Needless tn
say, this adventure proved a medieval "scoon"
OF the gaudiest kind, but in the course of I'm.
retellings the aurochs became q wi.
sent, as was called the European bison, and since
that time a perplexing confusion has reigned he.
tween these two animals. That the true aurochs
which became extinct three hundred years ago
an 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 bison's pathetic fate appeals more mar.
for when shooting In the Rockies in
the seventies of last century he still saw them in
herds OF ten thousand. But as the men who can
claim to have seen the same marvellous sight
will before long follow these lordly inhabitants
of the wilds to the happy hunting grounds. the
study Of the past history of these two species
1as for some people unusual attractions. And
not the least interesting phase of it is the col
Getting OF pictures made at a time when both
beasts were still roaming over the wastes of
he earth" or had but recently disappeared.
OF the earliest of all pictures of what was prob
IDLY meant to be the bison. an interesting arti-
lie which recently appeared in an illustrated week
y. In which the roof pictures in the Altamira
Cave were reproduced. 6 ave one a capital idea.
after a gap of untold centuries we reach the
'arious pictorial records left to us by the CHS
is, gravers or brushes of the classic ages.
among those who have made important discov-
ries respecting the distribution Of the aurochs,
Conrad Keller, the wellknown Zurich
oologist, occupies a prominent place. His dis
overies in the ruins of the ancient palace of
ling Minos in Crete of no fewer than sixteen
and one skull of what unquestionably
7as the original wild OK of Europe, or aurochs.
how that 1t lived there at one period, and that
he famous legend of the minotaur has a sub
Of truth. From his pages we borrow an
lustration of an important fresco in Knossos de-
letting an aurochs in the act of impaling a help
victim, while a bold bull-fghter is
ctually turning a somersault over the back of
he beast. a third, possibly female. looker-on at
smpting to seize the bulls tail, the scene being
robaDly enacted In an arena. 1t Is possible that
lie Theseus story came from the slaughter Of
aptives in such exhibitions. Several other pic
have been recently discovered which be-
ing to the Minos period. 1. e.. between 1000 and
800 B. c. Professor Keller's highly instructive
ritings contain many other illustrations of Bos
Skipping tens of centuries, we reach the Bes-
aries. the most ancient of which originated In
e period we touched at the outset when speak
g Of C~harlemagne's aurochs-hunt. These ex-
'edingly primitive pictorial records do not add
UGH to our information; "the choice hurts one"
Germans describe that state of uncertainty in
gard to what the monastic artists meant to
present by their crude attempts. Skipping a
W more centuries. we at last reach, in the be-
inning OF the fifteenth century, fairly intelligent
counts of the animals habitat, and are fur
shed with drawings presenting features sufi.
entity distinct to indicate. even to eyes accus-
med to Photographic accuracy. the identity of
Q animal the picture means to represent.
Very curious is the circumstance, to which,
the way, nobody has SO far drawn attention,
at none Of the French sporting books of the
and fifteenth centuries. such as Roy
Castor Phoebus," GAGE de la Buigne"
d "FontainesGuerin." mentions either the