132 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



titmouse most refreshing. The silence expresses the desolateness 

 of the woods. He who hopes to be able to lead in them a joyous 

 sportsman's life will be bitterly disappointed. Doubtless all the 

 immense woods of this region have more tenants, especially birds 

 and mammals, than we are at first inclined to believe, but these 

 animals are so unequally distributed over the immeasurable area, and 

 probably also wander so widely, that we can arrive at no standard 

 for estimating their numbers. Miles and miles are, or appear to be 

 for a time at least, so lifeless and desolate that naturalist and sports- 

 man alike are almost driven to despair, their expectations are so 

 continually disappointed. All the reports of even experienced ob- 

 servers who have sojourned there leave one still in the dark. 

 Districts which seem to combine all the conditions necessary for 

 the vigorous and comfortable life of certain species of animals, 

 shelter, to all appearance, not a single pair, not even a male, naturally 

 fond of roving. In such woods, far from human settlements, and 

 to some extent beyond the limits of human traffic, one cannot but 

 hope at length to fall in with the species which should frequent 

 such places, but the hope is as fallacious as the supposition that 

 one is more likely to meet with them in the heart of the forest than 

 on its outskirts. The fact is that the regions under man's influence, 

 which he has modified, and to some extent cultivated, seem often 

 to exhibit a more abundant and diverse life than the interior of the 

 forest-wilderness. Wherever man has founded stable settlements, 

 rooted out trees, and laid out fields and pasture-lands, there 

 gradually arises a greater diversity of animal life than is to be seen, 

 in the vast untouched regions which remain in their original mono- 

 tony. It seems as if many animals find suitable localities for settle- 

 ment only after the ground is brought under cultivation. Of course 

 the fact that certain animals are more abundant in the neighbour- 

 hood of man, where they are ruthlessly hunted, than they are 

 in the inaccessible forest, where danger scarce threatens them, im- 

 plies a gradual reinforcement from without. At certain seasons 

 at least there must be migrations of more or less considerable extent, 

 and in these most of the West Siberian animals take part. All the 

 observations hitherto made corroborate this view. 



