394 SPORT IN EUROPE 



beast would by this time have undoubtedly disappeared. These two 

 preserves constitute the only remaining known haunts of the aurochs. 

 I do not know what credit may be given to the belief that this animal 

 is to be found in the wilds of Siberia, and I give the following state- 

 ment with reserve. I have been told that a hunter in 



epor e in ^^^ service of the Ekaterinburo- Shooting Club had 

 Siberia. '^ 



lately brought in the news that he had come across three 



large beasts in the woods, which he had never seen before. On being- 

 shown the illustration of a bison in a book of natural history, he is 

 said to have recognised the animal as the species he had seen. After 

 all, why should this rumour be entirely rejected ? There is no reason 

 why an animal which has been spread over Europe for thousands of 

 years should not still exist in the dense Siberian Taiga, as yet beyond 

 reach of human enterprise, and whence the three bisons referred to 

 miofht have travelled. The Bielovegre Park is an immense enclosure of 

 above a hundred square miles. Here the bisons live in safety, and are 



carefully preserved by the imperial hunters, and fed in 

 Preserves. 



winter. Once a year the Emperor and his guests shoot 



over part of the ground, and thirty to forty of these animals are killed 

 by "driving." According to the Russian game laws, bison shooting 

 is prohibited all the year round, and the Grand Duke Serge had to 

 secure for that purpose special permit from the Emperor every time he 

 visited the Kouban. He has lately been granted the right of shooting 

 bison freely on his own ground, but he himself limits the annual 

 number killed to three. The beasts are now confined within a com- 

 paratively small area, viz. the woods at the head of the Kisha, and 

 some of its lateral valleys, together with a few neighbouring nullahs. 



