With a crack of the driver's knout and the tinkle of a string of bells hung at the horses' throats, as was formerly done in all posting conveyances all overEurope, the heavy carriage, similar to our Victoria, rolls over the cobblestones of the village Street and out to the dusty trail toward the estate of the seigneur. For hours one passes through a closely cultivated grain country where the peasants are gathering the last vestiges of the crops by methods, in many instances, not far removed from those employed in Egypt in the days of bondage; past flock and herds, and droves of hobbled horses attended by bare-footed boys and girls; through forests and open plain until the eye is delighted by the sight of the white walls of Monsiegneur's mansion, nestled in the midst of an irregular hamlet of the peasants' izbas.


 Before releasing the Borzoi. Notice the leashes.                 To the Scene of the Hunt.

   Hare, foxes and wolves are coursed in Russia and three different methods are employed to drive the game from its lair. Primarily it must be under stood that the country is without fences and quite open, with here and there small groves of trees and bushes. When the herdsmen have reported that in a certain grove or covert there is a family of wolves or foxes, the hunt is called.

   In the early morning may be seen wending its way along the trail-like roads of the district a long line of mounted hunters, each holding in his left hand a leash of three magnificent Borzoi, two dogs and a bitch, as nearly matched in color and conformation as possible, and followed by the pack of Anglo-Russian foxhounds with the huntsmen and whips in red tunics. On arriving at the scene of the hunt, the hunters are stationed by the chief at intervals of a hundred yards or so until the entire grove is surrounded by a long cordon of hounds and riders. A signal note is heard on the hunting horn, and, with the mingled music of the dogs, shouts of men and the cracking of whips, the foxhound pack is urged into the grove in pursuit of the hidden game. The scene is certainly a medieaval one. Hunters dressed in typical Russian costumes, fur trimmed hats, booted and spurred and accoutred with hunting horn, whip and dagger, and mounted on padded Cossack saddles over the backs of their hardy Khirgez ponies, holding on straining leash their long-haired and exceedingly beautiful dogs, make a picture that once seen is not easily forgotten.

   But hark the sound of hound voices is changed to a sudden, sharp yapping of the pack in ''full cry." They are on the trail. Suddenly there springs from the covert a dark gray form bent upon reaching the next covert, some hundreds of yards away. In an instant he is well in the open and sees, only too late, that he has approached within striking distance of the nearest leash of borzoi. With a cry, "Ou-la-lou," and setting his horse at a gallop, the hunter slips his hounds. There is a rush, a spring, and with a yelp the foremost dog is sent rolling, but instantly is back to the attack, which continues a confused mass of white and gray swiftly leaping forms and of snapping fangs until a neck-hold is secured by the


Hunting in Russia. Flight of the Wolf.

14.

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Copyright Rey and Yvonne McGehee 2000.