106 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



rob him of his hard-earned crop. As it is, 

 Bruin knows so well how rarely the husband- 

 man's bullets come near enough to do more 

 than startle him, that he is probably even 

 now at work in some corner where the forest 

 trees cast a shadow, and the sound of his 

 devastations do not reach the watcher's plat- 

 form. 



Further on, where the track passes 

 through a scattered wood of box-trees, on a 

 boulder- studded lawn, we saw a deep pit dug 

 back into the face of a hill, which overlooked 

 the site of a now deserted maize field. Here 

 a year ago another peasant passed many a 

 silent hour (while man was at rest, and only 

 the beasts of the forest roamed the moonlit 

 woodland ways), watching with finger on 

 trigger for the four-footed enemies with whom 

 lie had to maintam the struggle for existence. 

 There is no lack of excitement for the farmer 

 here, who, when he has cleared his patch and 



