CHAPTER LXXIII. 



METHODS OF CAPTURING WILD-FOWL IN RUSSIA. 



Who can recount what transmigrations there 

 Are annual made ? what nations come and go ? 

 And how the living clouds on clouds arise ? 

 Infinite wings ! till all the plume-dark air 

 And rude resounding shore are one wild cry." 



THOMSON. 



THERE is a species of wild-goose, which Pennant recognizes as the 

 white brant, or snow-goose, which annually visits the north of Asia, 

 in gaggles consisting of several thousands. 



The method of taking these birds, as described by Pennant, in his 

 " Arctic Zoology," seems extraordinary, and yet so simple as almost 

 to excite a feeling of incredulity as to the authenticity of that 

 author's statement. It is, however, confirmed by other writers.* 

 The art is practised with considerable success in Jakut and other 

 parts of Siberia. 



A large net is placed on the bank of a river, near the nightly 

 haunts of the wild-geese, in such a position that, on the fowler sud- 

 denly jerking a line communicating at a distance of several yards 

 from the net, it falls, and ensnares any birds which may be within 

 its compass. On the net being spread, the singular proceedings con- 

 nected with it are put in force. One of the fowlers (generally 

 a man of diminutive stature) covers himself with the skin of a white 

 rein-deer, or wraps a white sheet about him, and in that disguise, at 

 twilight or later, crawls along the ground towards the geese, not near 

 enough to allow of detection, nor so as to alarm them. The distance 

 he advances must be regulated according to the humour of the birds. 



* Vide " History of Kamtschatka ;" translated from the Russian of Krasheninicoff, 

 by James Grieve, M.D. : 1764. 



