392 SPORT IN EUROPE 



another amateur finally kills him. This is only one of the innumer- 

 able dodges of these wily hunters. Naturally a good many bears 

 escape this procedure, and lie undisturbed all the winter, frequent 

 heavy snow-falls covering up their tracks. The drive itself presents 

 practically no difficulty ; nine times out of ten the beast comes out 

 of his own tracks ; hence the best post is on the tracks leading 

 into the circle. 



Expeditions are often organised in the government of Olonetz 

 and others, where bears abound. These last a week or ten days, 

 when fifteen or twenty bears may be killed in this way at the rate of 

 two drives, or sometimes three, a day. The largest beast I have seen 

 bagged in European Russia weighed over twenty-five poods {800 lbs.). 

 Another more excitino- mode of hunting- this animal consists in march- 

 ing up to the bear's den, when the latter has been exactly located by 



the hunter, which is often the case. This may be done 

 , -^ either with dogs (/aikis), a species of Lapp hound, whose 



business is to rouse the beast from its lair, and to stop 

 him if wounded, or without them, by walking straight up to the spot. 

 This mode of hunting may sometimes prove dangerous, as it happens 

 now and then that the animal gets up suddenly from some unexpected 

 place at much closer quarters, and it does not take him long to maul 

 one. I have heard of peasants going up to a bear's den in this manner 

 with an axe in their right hand and rope tied round their left arm- — a 

 duel, in which both combatants frequently come to an untimely end. 

 In spring bears wake up and wander great distances in search of food, 

 which gives rise to a third mode of securing them. A dead bullock, 

 or horse, is placed at a likely spot, and a plank recess built half-way 



