THE FORESTS AND SPORT OE SIBERIA. 155 



nor men are deceived by his shamming death. The former, pressing 

 between the stakes, try to get a grip of him; the latter slip the 

 much-used horse-noose or arJcan over his head. Once more the 

 beast springs up, once more he rages on his path of torture, howling 

 he seeks to terrify, gnashing his teeth he attempts defiance, but in 

 vain — there is no escape from the dread noose, and in a few minutes 

 he is throttled. 



The fox is everywhere attacked, hunted, killed, and devoured, 

 or at least hard pressed, by the wolf, and is therefore not abundant 

 in Siberia, but neither his hostile relative nor man have as yet been 

 able to exterminate him. In the eastern parts of the forest-zone 

 he sometimes undertakes long migrations, following the hares or 

 the grouse; in the west, observations on this point do not appear to 

 be recorded. They do not complain in Siberia of the damage he 

 does, nevertheless they hunt him eagerly, for his fur is prized by 

 natives and Russians alike, and is always dear. It fetches an 

 especially high price when it is of a certain much -appreciated 

 colour. As a beast of the chase, only the sable takes higher rank. 

 For the sake of the fox alone professional hunters undertake winter 

 expeditions which often take them as far into the heart of the forest 

 as the sable-hunters are wont to penetrate. Especially for it do the 

 Ostiaks and Samoyedes set their spring-bows, and they spare no 

 trouble in their search for the burrow where the young are hidden, 

 not in order to kill them, but that they may rear them carefully 

 and tenderly till they become large and strong, and gain, in their first 

 or second winter, their beautiful fur. For that the fosterers care 

 more than for the life of their winsome charges, and they give them 

 over remorselessly to the fatal noose. 



The Arctic fox may be , included conditionally among the forest 

 animals, but it never actually penetrates into the forest. Sometimes, 

 however, in winter, in pursuit of hares and moor-fowl, it follows the 

 course of the large rivers beyond the southern limits of the tundra, 

 its true home. 



The lynx, on the other hand, is a forest animal in the strictest 

 sense of the word. But in Siberia it only occurs singly, and is very 

 rarely captured. .Its true home is in the thickest parts in the 



