BIG GAME 301 



the finest beast of prey in the world, the Northern 

 or Siberian tiger. No one quite knows to what 

 dimensions the Siberian tiger will not grow. One 

 owned by Mr. Hagenbeck was a far larger animal than 

 he or any other had ever seen either alive or repre- 

 sented by its skin. The coat is immensely long in 

 winter, of a rich dark orange, with an undergrowth 

 of fur, and makes an incomparable trophy. Both these 

 Northern tigers and bears were recently so plentiful 

 on the Ussuri, that the Russian Government offered 

 a large reward for their destruction, and gave every 

 encouragement to the officers of the East Siberian army 

 to go and hunt there. But Russian officers have not 

 that passion for sport which seems inbred in English- 

 men abroad, and recent accounts state that the ravages 

 made among the cattle of the new Russian settlers are 

 still a most serious drawback to colonization. The 

 wild boars of the Ussuri are also very fine animals. 

 There are two of these at the Tring museum, but they 

 do not equal the dimensions of the huge European 

 boar from the Carpathians recently exhibited at the 

 International Fur Store. This European boar, shot 

 within a few days by rail from London, weighed six 

 hundred and twenty pounds, beating the record of the 

 chestnut-fed boars of the Caucasus. Its bristles were 

 so wiry, long, and thick, that they looked like a piece 

 of rough heather thatching. 



