ON THE PLAINS 



biting frost, or dazzling white in its robe of fresh- 

 fallen snow. 



The beaters are as numerous as in the summer, 

 but their appearance is very different, for they are 

 muffled up to withstand the cold, and fur caps and 

 gloves are general. The men, too (and sometimes 

 the women) keep taking surreptitious pulls at certain 

 small bottles which they produce from the inner- 

 most recesses of their clothing, and which contain 

 slivovitz, a fiery spirit distilled from the juice of 

 a small black plum. 



Let us suppose that a feld-kreis, or field-drive, is 

 about to take place. From a certain point two 

 lines of beaters, with a "gun " every three hundred 

 yards or so, diverge right and left, and, walking in 

 Indian file, each detachment describes a half-circle, 

 thus forming a ring usually of some two miles in 

 diameter. In the centre of the circle waves a flag 

 upon which the whole line is to converge. 



And now the order to advance, passed from keeper 

 to keeper by the aid of the ubiquitous horn, comes. 

 Every now and then a hare rises from its "form," 

 and steals away, generally out of range. For the 

 first quarter of an hour or so one hardly gets a shot 

 But wait ! Gradually the circle lessens. Hares 

 that have been roused on the other side of the ring 

 begin to make their appearance some with ears 

 laid back, and body stretched out to its full extent, 



89 



