THE BISONS OF THE CAUCASUS. 349 



than this, after very snowy winters those animals that live through 

 to the spring are very weak and thin and there are almost no 

 calves with the females. The greater number of pregnant cows, 

 weakened by struggling in the midst of the snow, have not carried 

 their offspring to maturity. On the contrary, during the years 

 when the snow is less abundant there are a number of normal calves 

 found in the herds. 



It is affirmed that the combats between bulls, so frequent at 

 Bielowitza, have never been observed here. At the time of calving 

 generally in the month of March, the pregnant cows abandon the 

 herds and seek isolated localities, usually on the confines of the 

 alpine region, hide themselves in the midst of the thickets at the 

 edge of the forest, often in the almost im^^enetrable masses of 

 rhododendrons, and there bring forth their young. A cow has never 

 been known to give birth to more than one calf. Six or seven days 

 after birth the offspring is strong enough to follow its mother. On 

 meeting man the cow does not defend her 3'oung, but flees, abandon-, 

 mg it to its fate as soon as man attempts to approach. The Ger- 

 man naturalist, Brehm. reports that the mother cow kills her own calf 

 if she discovers that it has been touched by the hand of man. I do 

 not know that anything of the kind has been observed in the Cau- 

 casus, but everything goes to prove that the bison considers man as 

 its most dreaded enemy, abhors his presence, and flees from his 

 approach as far as the region of the glaciers. The bison has also 

 much to dread from the wild beasts of different kinds that abound 

 in the forests of the Caucasus — from the panther, which is becoming 

 more and more rare here ; the lynx, the wolf, and the bear, the latter 

 attacking in preference the young calves, whose remains are often 

 found in his stomach. Since the organization of game preserves 

 by the Grand Duke Sergius, the number of Avild beasts has con- 

 siderably decreased and the protected game, the deer, the argali, the 

 chamois, and the wild boar have proportionately increased. We 

 have seen that the same is true of the bison during the past twenty 

 years. 



As regards the hunting of the bison, this is what we know con- 

 cerning it : In 1848 an anonymous author published an account 

 of a bison hunt in which were engaged the Abkhases (one of the 

 numerous Caucasian tribes), in the basin of Zelentchouk, on the 

 banks of the Ouroup and the Grand Laba, but this account was 

 received with incredulity, and it was even conjectured that it was not 

 the bison that was hunted, but another bovine animal, the gaur 

 (Bos gaurus), an inhabitant of India, which was absolutely false, 

 as is proved by the skins of bisons successively sent to the museums 

 of Tiflis in 1864, 1869, and 1892. These three animals, killed by 



