BOHEMIA AND ITS PEOPLE 



speare's epithet of "fair." And summer and winter 

 alike, with a charm in their very monotony, standing 

 out, like a royal mantle of velvety green on the 

 bosom of the land, are the silent pine forests. 



Two thousand years ago Bohemia formed the 

 centre of the Hyrcania Sylva that great forest 

 which extended from the Rhine to Poland, and of 

 which Julius Caesar wrote in the sixth book of his 

 De Bella Gallico. From his description of the 

 animals that haunted its depths, it seems as if the 

 reindeer, the elk, and the aurochs were then to be 

 found there. His account of the elk is particularly 

 quaint : " they have legs without joints and liga- 

 tures," he says ; " neither do they lie down in quiet 

 for this cause, and if they should fall to the ground, 

 having been accidentally thrown down, they cannot 

 lift themselves or rise. Trees are their beds ; 

 against these they lean, and so, reclining only a 

 little, take their rest." 



But all these animals have long ago been driven 

 northwards by the advance of civilization. 



Walk through a Bohemian forest to-day, and 

 nothing more formidable than a red deer or roebuck 

 will cross your path. The wild boar is becoming 

 scarce, except in preserved ground, and the lynx 

 has almost died out. 



The most striking feature of the pine-woods is 

 their intense stillness. No small birds fill the air 



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