Quadrupeds . 2255 



cord, while a pig, which they have with them, is made to squeal. The wolf, attracted 

 by the cries, arid ravenous from hunger, pursues the object trailing behind, and is 

 despatched by a rifle-shot from the sledge. This sport can only be followed out on 

 moonlight nights, and is particularly dangerous when several wolves join in pursuit of 

 the sledge. 



" The elk and bear are ' rung,' as it is technically termed. The peasants take great 

 pleasure in this process, and the more so as they obtain a handsome gratuity if they 

 succeed in accomplishing the operation ; which they will travel a hundred miles to 

 communicate to any sportsman willing to avail himself of it ; and there is no lack of 

 them. Engaged, probably, in their daily vocation of felling wood, in.places approach- 

 able only under the influence of the frost, they first perceive the track of the beast in 

 the snow, and tracing it till it is lost in some wood or cover, they encircle the spot at 

 some distance, to be satisfied that the game is safely lodged. This task is repeated for 

 several successive days, with the most watchful eye for any fresh traces which might 

 announce its escape ; and if there be none, a messenger mounts his sledge and starts 

 for St. Petersburg to sell his discovery (if of a bear, for one hundred roubles), and re- 

 turns with the party of sportsmen to indicate the spot. 



" A crowd of peasants surround the place, and among them, at proper intervals, 

 the marksmen take their stand. The dogs are turned in, and, if it be a bear, it is 

 soon roused, and attempts to break the ring; an unsuccessful shot turns him back, to 

 appear at another place, and if he be not fortunate enough to get clear, which seldom 

 occurs, his doom is soon fixed. Sometimes there is a difficulty in dislodging him, and 

 the hunters are compelled to enter the wood to face him in his own fastnesses ; which 

 is an affair of some danger, as he then often turns, and becomes the attacking party. 

 A gentleman of my acquaintance had a very narrow escape of his life in one of these 

 encounters ; and, indeed, but for his strong nerve and high courage, he must have pe- 

 rished. In following up a wounded elk, he came most unexpectedly on a she bear, 

 with two cubs of the previous summer by her side; he fired and missed, and, before 

 he had time to defend himself, she rose at him and struck him down, but left him in 

 her anxiety for her cubs ; he immediately got on his legs, and, firing again, wounded 

 the beast, which again ran at him, threw him down in the struggle, tore his thigh with 

 her hind claws, bit him severely through the arm and wrist, and, without relinquish- 

 ing her grasp, stood over him, holding him down. Notwithstanding the acute agony 

 he was suffering, and his almost powerless condition, he contrived to draw his hunting 

 knife, and to inflict a deep wound in the region of the heart of the beast ; which he, 

 however, just missed, as I saw afterwards on dissection. After this effort it appears he 

 sank exhausted ; but his friend, who had heard the shots from a little distance, having 

 providentially hurried up, though fearfully alarmed at the state of his companion, 

 went up to the head of the bear, and discharged his rifle into its brain. The animal 

 fell dead on the body of her unconscious antagonist, who was immediately extricated 

 and restored, and had nerve enough to travel home at speed, a distance of upwards of 

 one hundred miles, to get the assistance there which it would have been in vain to 

 have sought for in the wilds of the interior. 



" Single-handed pursuit is seldom ventured on ; but an English gentleman in the 

 Russian military service, who is a perfect ' Leather - Stocking ' in his habits and 

 tastes, is said to prefer this mode, and will spend weeks alone in the woods. In the 

 winter of 1841 I saw an immense bear of six hundredweight, which he had kept in 

 pursuit of for two days. It is impossible to estimate the distance he traversed in that 



