388 SPORT IN EUROPE 



present to the reader a general outline of the whole, a brief description 



of the game to be found, and the various modes of securing- it, 



referring now and again to the books which have already been 



published on special aspects of the subject. 



The elk [A/ces vtachlis) is found throughout the northern and 



central districts of European Russia. Its range extends throughout 



Finland, the Baltic provinces, together with a small 

 Elk. 



portion of Germany, along the Russian frontier, the 



Polish marshes, including the governments* of Minsk and Mohilev, 



eastwards throughout the governments of Tambov and Saratov, 



where forests abound, as well as over all the country 

 Its Range. 



north, almost unto the Arctic Ocean. It is to be 



found in the Ural Mountains, in the whole of Siberia, where the 



Taiga (dense woods) covers immense tracts of ground, in the Altai 



district, on the borders of Mongolia, where I have myself come 



across its tracks, as well as on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, 



where it bears the character of its near relative, the Alaskan moose. 



Its distribution is therefore exceedingly wide over three-quarters 



of the Russian Empire. The usual modes of hunting the elk, 



unlike those generally adopted in Norway with led or loose Lapp 



hounds, are either by driving, or by approach during 



the calling-time in September. Of the two, the former 



is by far the simpler, though the less sportsmanlike. 



It consists in finding the elk by its tracks in the snow, a duty 



performed by professional hunters, who scour the woods for that 



purpose, and, as soon as the tracks are discovered, make a large 



* " Government " in the sense of county. 



