66 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



Lithuania, belonging to the Emperor of Russia, there are a 

 number of them living under very efficient protection ; but the 

 Caucasus is the only place where they are still found absolutely 

 wild. On my first visit to the Caucasus in 1887, the natives 

 told me about the aurochs, and, fired with the idea, I made 

 several attempts to get one ; but we were too late in the year, 

 and were, so our guides informed us, in imminent danger of 

 being snowed up in the mountains, so we had to leave without 

 my ever seeing a fresh track. Mrs. Littledale and I returned 

 the following year, and for three months not a week passed 

 without my making two or three excursions after the aurochs. 

 We were camped just about the timber-line at an elevation of 

 (approximately) 6,000 feet, and we only found their track in the 

 densely timbered valleys below. There were no means of get- 

 ting our camp pitched lower down, for the valleys were quite 

 impassable for horses, and even if possible it would have been 

 questionable policy, as such extremely shy and retiring animals 

 would certainly not have remained within a feasible distance of 

 our tents. The only way we got into the country at all was by 

 following up a ridge : when the ridge ceased to be practicable 

 then we had to stop. In the early morning I used to descend 

 into the timber, sometimes trying the higher ground, on other 

 days the lower ; and I frequently crossed the valley and up the 

 other side, which entailed a descent of about 3,000 feet, a similar 

 ascent up the corresponding side, and the whole thing over 

 again on returning to camp. We rarely saw a fresh track. 

 The aurochs seemed to love a level piece of ground, perhaps 

 because when the ground was level there was always a swamp 

 with facilities for wallowing, or because, being originally a plain 

 animal, some latent hereditary instinct made them feel more at 

 home there than on the steep hill -side. But whenever we 

 were able through an opening of the trees to look down and 

 see a level spot, we used to make straight for it, because we 

 found from experience that if there were any of the animals 

 near at hand we should find traces of them there, and if there 

 were no tracks then it was almost useless spending any more 



