HO DENSE COVERTS. 



Beyond these two tracts of forest he knew no- 

 thing, and in this dense covert it is almost useless 

 to attempt to shoot until you have first explored 

 a little. If you do attempt it, you find yourself, 

 sooner or later, lost in a dense mass of thorns, in 

 which you cannot move without noise in which, 

 in fact, you can scarcely move at all. From above 

 hang thick curtains of the abominable creeper 

 which the people call aptly enough l wolf's tooth,' 

 which is so keen and strong that even my stout 

 jacket of moleskin was torn by it ; while Stepan's 

 clothes, though made of the toughest canvas, ceased 

 to exist, in spite of all his ingenious patchings, by 

 the end of the fortnight. A few boars and two more 

 bears were all we could get ; and at last I con- 

 sented to a trial of Stepan's vaunted pack. But 

 not until we had tried every other method did 

 I consent to having the forests disturbed in this 

 way. 



One day, after twelve hours' spent in the usual 

 stalking, Stepan and I perched ourselves like un- 

 gainly birds each in a tree above a hole full of mud 

 and water, in which herds of swine wallowed nightly. 

 But our limbs grew cramped, and the moon rose 

 higher in the heavens, making quaint patterns on 

 the dark hole below, without our ever being dis- 

 turbed in our night- watch. As the moon grew 

 more dim, we climbed down again with aching 

 limbs ; and as Stepan relieved his feelings by a 



