THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 399 



law entirely prohibiting maral shooting for a number of years, 



but whether this measure can be enforced or not remains to be 



seen. At all events, in 1897 I spent August and part of September 



after maral in the best districts of the Altai. It was, of course, 



too early for the calling season, but, though I was out almost every 



day from early morning to dusk, I only succeeded in spying two 



hinds and a couple of young stags. Littledale was lucky enough 



to see a good fourteen-pointer, but failed to stalk it, owing to his 



hunter's want of precaution. Maral enclosures are common in the 



country, and often contain a hundred and more tame animals. They 



belong to Russian merchants, whose sole object is trade. 



Besides isubra, the Amur and Pacific Coast regions contain a form 



of sika, probably Cervus dybowski, of which very little is known. 



The small island of Askold, off Vladivostok, is the haunt of a 



particular kind of deer seldom found on the mainland. 



Other kinds. 

 The ground on that island which it frequents is rented 



by a shooting club, the members of which organise drives several 



times a year, and specimens of the heads secured by them show that 



this deer belongs to the sika group, though its antlers are somewhat 



longer than those of the typical form. 



The reindeer, or caribou, is distributed all over the north of P"in- 



land, the northern governments of Russia as far south 



Reindeer, 

 as Nijni- Novgorod and Kazan, wandering in large 



herds, and migrating periodically between the huge tracts of timber. 



I have found this animal myself in Central Ural, though in smaller 



numbers, and was lucky enough to shoot one in the wild district of 



Serebrianka (Central Ural). Its antlers measured just under fifty 



