30 THE! FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 
head, while I listened to, the conversation carried on by. 
my fellow traveller and our host. It appeared that on the 
preceding night, a bear had entered the kraal, and was 
hugging one of the cows in a death-gripe, preparatory to: 
carrying it off, when it was disturbed by the bell of our 
tarantass, and the rattling of our vehicle over the planks of 
the bridge by which we approached the pavilion. Bears 
are abundant in the forests there. Twenty carcasses of 
cows hugged to death by bears had been found in the 
neighbourhood of Petrozavodsk in the course of the pre- 
ceding year, and game of all kindsabound. Winged game, 
rabschick and tytark, may be had for a mere trifle, and, the 
mystery of hare-soup being still unknown, hares are a drug, 
the people being unwilling to eat them, and when they 
do prepare them for the table they are larded with strips 
of bacon introduced with a larding pin before being cooked, 
otherwise, they say, the flesh would be too dry to be 
eatable. 
The wages of this forest warder were 18 roubles, or 36s, 
a month, with eight dezatines, or 20 acres of arable land, 
free pasturage for his cows, and the horse which he is 
required to keep. He and his wife had been there for 
eighteen years. By way of ‘stirrup cup’ our hostess had 
prepared for us a cup of tea at our hour of starting, and I 
having asked for a glass of milk, it seemed to give her 
greater pleasure than even it did to me, to give me as 
much milk as I chose to drink. 
I may mention that other forest officials are remunerated 
in the same way—salary, dwelling-house, and arable land, 
varying with their rank and position. They hold rank 
corresponding to that in the army, with corresponding 
uniforms of which the higher officials have four sets—one 
appropriated to work in the forests, another to work in the 
office, another so-called full dress uniform, and a fourth 
characterised as undress uniform. On retiring from the 
service they retire with rank next higher in grade to that 
which they held, and with permission to wear the corres- 
ponding uniform ; but not until they have attained to the 
