144 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



plumage and its surroundings. Nevertheless, whenever it shows 

 itself freely it keeps looking anxiously all round, and, if it suspects 

 danger, leaves its perch as silently as it gained it. Hazel-grouse 

 shooting is a true pleasure to the sportsman. He may expect the bird 

 almost everywhere in the forest, and can never tell how it will show 

 itself; he must usually dispense with all auxiliaries, but his success 

 is not prejudiced by awkward companions; and he is even more richly 

 rewarded by the continuous tension and pleasurable excitement than 

 by the exquisite dish afforded by this best-flavoured of game-birds. 

 Compared with the importance of game-birds to the sportsman, 

 and indeed to the community generally, the chase and exploitation 

 of big game in West Siberia must seem inconsiderable. The four 

 species of stag found in this region are for various, but equally unsatis- 

 factory reasons, much less appreciated than they deserve. They are 

 treated in a manner which, if not actually barbarous, seems to us 

 disagreeable or even repulsive. This is especially true in regard to 

 the Maral stag. This splendid creature, according to some natu- 

 ralists a large-sized red-deer, according to others a nearly related 

 species with larger body and stronger antlers, lives in all the 

 southern forests, especially on the mountains, and is probably by 

 no means so rare as the untiring lust for the chase on the part of 

 both natives and strangers has made it seem. For a strange reason 

 the said lust for the chase endangers this stag most seriously just 

 at the time when he needs most to be spared. For he is hunted by 

 all the North Asiatic hunters not for his flesh nor his skin, nor for 

 his fully-branched head, but solely and wholly for the growing, 

 incompletely tined, and still velvety antlers. 33 Out of this the 

 Chinese physicians or quacks prepare a specific, which is greatly 

 sought after by rich debilitated Celestials, and is sold for its weight 

 in gold. It is esteemed as a stimulant of rare virtue, and believed 

 to be replaceable by no other. Most sought after are the half- 

 branched, six-tined antlers, still richly filled with blood; for these 

 the price is from 10 to 15, while completely formed antlers, with 

 twelve or fourteen tines, and bared of their velvet, may be bought 

 for six to twelve shillings. Not only the Mongols of North and 

 Central Asia, but also the Siberians of Kussian origin, exert them- 



