CAUCASIAN AUROCHS 67 



time in that neighbourhood. I had with me Tcherkess hunters 

 — we had not a Russian in the party that trip — and they worked 

 very hard to get me a shot at a dombey, the Tcherkess name 

 for the aurochs. We found places where they had stripped 

 the bark off rowan trees, both the bark and berries evidently 

 being a favourite food, and where they had grazed on the 

 bracken one afternoon we thought we heard some below us. 



The wind being right, we lay down for a couple of hours in 

 the hope that they might come towards us. Presently we heard 

 the snapping of twigs getting nearer and nearer. I made myself 

 a little peep-hole through the bracken and cocked the rifle ; 

 about sixty yards off I saw some young fir-trees sway about as 

 an animal forced its way through, and there stood before me, 

 not the aurochs I had hoped for, but a young stag. He 

 sauntered past within forty yards without getting our wind, 

 and we then crept in the direction where we imagined the 

 aurochs were, for the hunters were positive it was not the stag 

 they had heard. The two men were barefooted and I wore 

 tennis shoes, but the bracken was dead, and with all our care 

 •it was impossible to go through it without making some little 

 noise. Suddenly there was a disturbance as of an omnibus 

 .crashing through the branches, but we saw nothing ; and that was 

 the nearest I got to an aurochs on that expedition. The 

 same weary plodding through dense timber brush and bracken, 

 and ever)' evening the same story, a tired frame and a clean 

 rifle, was continued week after week till the natives told us 

 that unless we wished to leave our baggage behind we must 

 get out of the mountains. 



The autumn of 1891 saw Mrs. Littledale and myself back 

 in the Caucasus, and on our arrival we immediately inquired 

 for our old hunter. He had embraced and kissed me fer- 

 vently on both cheeks at parting, and we looked forward 

 to seeing that fine old man again. He had snow-white hair, 

 but his springy walk and keen eye made me hope that 1 too, 

 at his age, might still be able to toddle along with a rifle 

 after big game. But he had gone, emigrated with some 



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