THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 395 



They are hunted by the Grand Duke and his guests once a year 



in September, the limited number being not always at- 



Prcscnt 

 tained. The usual mode of hunting adopted consists in _. 



trackinof the beasts in the woods from well-known salt 

 licks, where they generally come to feed in the morning. Early spring 

 would, of course, be the most favourable time for securing bison by 

 following them up along the passes they make through deep snow. 

 Roughly speaking, I should estimate the number of bison on the 

 Grand Duke's ground at about five hundred head. The compara- 

 tively narrow stretch of country in which they are confined has caused 

 close inter-breeding, and I think 1 should be hardly wrong in stating 

 that their days are now numbered, and that fifty years hence they 

 will have naturally disappeared from the wild forests of the Kisha 

 valley. 



Red deer are widely distributed over the Russian Empire. 

 Cervus elaplms exists in many parts of European Russia.* There 

 is a vast area, covered by dense timber, in the government of 



Nijni-Novoforod, which this species is said to inhabit. 



-' "^ ^ Red Deer. 



Two or three specimens of shed horns have been 



gathered on the outskirts of those woods, but, owing to almost 

 insurmountable difficulties, no sportsman has as yet entered those 

 unexplored regions. Want of roads, lack of supplies and com- 

 munications, absence of inhabitants, have rendered unsuccessful all 

 attempts (if, indeed, any have been seriously made) to penetrate 

 into those weird forests. Red deer are also to be found in great 



* Vide Deer of all Lands, by Lydekker. Also Hunfing Trips in the Caucasus, by 

 Demidoff Prince San Donato. 



