390 SPORT IN EUROPE 



cancelled and the game laws unified. The second and, to my idea, 



far more interesting mode of hunting the elk, is by 



btalking stalkino- during^ his ruttino--time in September ; but the 



with the . . 



Call. ^^^^"^ ^^ experienced hunters who can imitate the call 



causes this kind of sport to be less practised. The 

 mode of proceeding needs no explanation. Naturally a good trophy 

 is more likely to be secured in this manner, it being easier than with 

 stags to recognise the call of an old bull. A curious accident occurred 

 a few years ago in the Baltic provinces. Two country gentlemen had 

 eone out elk-calline, and had somehow found themselves within hear- 

 ing-range of each other in the woods. They accordingly approached 

 one another, each of them thinking they had to deal with an elk, and, 

 being unable to distinguish anything in the brushwood, one of them 

 shot the other dead. 



Little information is to be obtained about elk-hunting in the Ural 



Mountains and Siberia, but there is every reason to 



In the Ural believe that the few professionals who visit the Taiga 



Mountains 



and Siberia ^^^Y '-^PO'"^ tracking the animals on snow-shoes in deep 



winter, drives being out of the question, owing to the 



attendant expense and scarcity of beaters. 



Bears have a wider distribution over the Russian Empire than elk. 



They are to be found not only in all the above-named regions, but are 



also to be met with in the Caucasus and on the Pamir 

 Bear. 



plateaux. The largest attain huge dimensions, and 



come mostly from Eastern Siberia and Kamschatka, thirty poods 



(960 lbs.) being the heaviest weight I have heard of for a brown 



bear. I naturally exclude the Polar bear, which is found in the Arctic 



