Dead aurochs 



CHAPTER IV 



CAUCASIAN AUROCHS 

 By St. G. Littledale 



Bos BONASUS is the scientific name for the aurochs, the great ox 

 that roamed in bygone ages over the whole of Europe : its re- 

 mains are found in Spain and Great Britain on the west. How 

 far east it ranged I cannot say, but when on the Upper Irtish 

 in Siberia, close to the Mongolian frontier, I obtained a skull 

 which had been dug up from the river bank. Like the 

 American bison, it has been driven from the low ground forests 

 and open plains, and has tried to find refuge in a secluded 

 mountain range ; and thanks to the inaccessibility and impene- 

 trable nature of its chosen retreat it is still to be found, though 

 in very limited numbers, in as wild and savage a state as it was 

 in the days of Caesar. In the forest district of Bialowicza in 



II. F 



