Jay C. Nielson., age 10, Montpelier,
What is an aurochl?
The aurochl was a wild ox who lived long ago. He once wandered over Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa in great numbers. It is believed that he; was the unicorn referred to in the Old Testament of the Bible. Julius Caesar was always interested in the animals that lived in the lands he conquered and someone told slim about the aurochl herds living in the Black Forest. The report said , that the wild oxen were big as elephants ‑ which was an exaggeration.
A giant aurochl stood about six foot high at shoulder level. Though he no longer exists, we have a good idea of what he looks like. Many aurochs bones and skulls have been found in Europe, especially in the Thames Valley. These big fellows once: enjoyed life. And, though the last of the big cattle left before the camera was invented, we have no pictures of them .
The aurochl was bigger than any of our modern cattle, but not as bid; as an elephant. He was jet black, very sturdy and built somewhat like our dairy cattle. His horns were slender and sharp but not very long. They pointed forward and were slightly curved. We have an excellcnt portrait of an aurochs painted in oils on wood. It was done in the year 1550, .
At the time this picture was made, the aurochl was becoming very scarce. He was none from his old haunts in the Thaiics Valley before Caesar conquered England. For another thousand years, he managed to survive in remote forests. The last herds held out in the forests of Poland until the early 1600s. They made a last stand in the Jaktozovvka Forest in Poland. There the last of them said goodbye to the world in the year 1620,
But perhaps this story is not as sad as it sounds. For while they lived, the aurochl often mingled with other cattle, especially the wild Celtic oxen. The children of these mixed marriages were not true aurochl. They were smaller. The people of Europe soon recognized the good qualities of these children of the aurochl end Celtic oxen. Unlike the older, wild oxen, they were not slay. It was possible to taro them. As time went on, the best of the herds selected axed various breeds of cattle developed.
It is believed that all the breeds of European cattle we know today are descended from those ancient lines. The great black aurochs is no longer with us. But his descendants are. He is an ancestor may back. in the family trees of the brown‑eyed, honey‑colored Jersey cow, of the whitefaced hereford and the sturdy Holstein. The lazy Black Angus did not even bother to change the: color of his coat, though his disposition is far more gentle than that of his wild black aurochl ancestor.