THE CAUCASUS 39 



dicated, there can be no doubt. A fine is imposed by the 

 Russian Government upon anyone who slays a zubre, and this 

 in itself goes a long way to prove the beast's existence ; but 

 there is better evidence than this. In 1879 I knew of two 

 which were killed as they came at night to help themselves in 

 winter to a peasant's haystack, and in 1866 a young zubre was 

 caught alive on the Zelentchuk and sent to the Zoological 

 Gardens of Moscow, where the savants decided that he was 

 identical with the aurochs of Bielowicza. Unfortunately the 

 chance of adding the head of a zubre to the sportsman's col- 

 lection is becoming more and more remote, as, in addition to 

 the law protecting the beast, the districts in which he is most 

 common are now included in a preserve set apart for the sons 

 of the Grand Duke, who formerly ruled at Tiflis. 



III. SOUTHERN SLOPES OF THE CAUCASUS 



The black hills and the pine forests on the northern side 

 of the chain are the favourite haunts of the red deer and the 

 aurochs, as the reedy bed of the Kuban is the favourite home 

 of the boar and the pheasant ; but though bears are found on 

 the northern slopes in fair numbers, occurring sometimes even 

 above the snow-line, the true home of Michael Michaelovitch 

 (as the peasants call him) is on the sunny slopes of the 

 southern side of the chain, as for instance in the great wild 

 fruit districts of Radcha, between the Kodor and the Ingur, or 

 in the sweet-chestnut forests and deserted orchards of Cir- 

 cassia. 



The change from one side of the main chain to the other 

 is as marked to-day as ancient legend made it. It is a change 

 from a northern land of storm and mist and pine forest to a 

 land of tropical luxuriance, of rank vegetation, of enervating 

 sunshine. Vines and clematis, and that accursed thorny 

 creeper which the Russians call ' wolf s-tooth,' form impene- 

 trable veils between the trees, while huge flowering weeds, 

 thickets of rhododendron and azalea, and jungles of the 



