OURSELVES STARTING FROM THE SHOOTING-LODGE.
Constructed entirely of wood, and erected by the local workmen under the superintendence of Mr. Sokalski, an Austrian Pole, who occupies the post of director of the preserve, the Pilawin shooting-lodge is a spacious two-storeyed building capable of affording excellent accommodation for three or four guests, and likewise containing the director’s offices and the dwelling-rooms of the head forester. The exterior is covered with large sheets of birch-bark, thus giving to the building the appearance at a distance of being constructed of blocks of white stone.
The main apartment, on the first floor, which serves both as dining-room and smoking-room, is adorned with a number of sporting and natural history trophies, including numerous elk, wapiti, and other antlers, together with stuffed specimens of the white-tailed eagle (Haliaëtus albicilla), the spotted eagle (Aquila heliaca), capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), and the rare black stork (Ciconia nigra).
I was specially interested in an imperfect antler dug up some years ago in the neighbourhood, which the owner had been unable to identify. It is, however, clearly a reindeer antler, although different from any specimen that has hitherto come under my notice. I think it may indicate an extinct local race of the species, although I may be able to write more definitely on this point when a cast (which the owner will endeavour to have prepared) reaches the British Museum. From a distributional point of view this antler is of considerable interest, as it serves to connect the present habitat of the reindeer with Hungary, where fossil antlers also occur. Till recently reindeer remains were unknown to the southward of the Alps and Carpathians; but at a depth of two mètres in a sand-bed beneath brick-earth at Ober-Laibach, in Krain, there has been found a portion of an antler of this species, now preserved in the museum at Laibach. This specimen is of the age of the so-called diluvium. Since in Bavaria and North Germany remains of the reindeer are abundant in deposits of the polished stone (Neolithic) age, while they are absent in the refuse-heaps of the Swiss pile-villages, the inference is that the species had become extinct in the Alps by the time of the diluvial epoch.
Another broken antler in the apartment dates back to the time—at least four centuries ago—when wild red deer still inhabited the surrounding forests.
The finest pair of elk-antlers in the apartment possesses a special and distinctly pathetic interest of its own. These antlers, I was informed by the Count, belonged to an elk which two seasons ago attacked and killed an unfortunate peasant on the estate. As the triumphant elk was departing from the scene of the murder, it was immediately attacked by a pugnacious wapiti with such vigour and determination, that after a short but severe encounter the death of the peasant was summarily avenged.
YOUNG ELK AND WAPITI.
A few words may be here conveniently devoted to the vegetation of these magnificent forests, which it is the object of their owner to preserve as much as possible in their original condition. In fact, the only changes that have been made are the construction of carriage roads (with a total length of about one hundred kilometres), the clearing away of fallen and half-fallen timber, the removal of superfluous under-covert, the draining of some of the swamps, and the construction of artificial lakes and of open spaces in the forest where abundant provender can be grown for the deer and bison.
The forest consists mainly of Scotch fir, oak (of two kinds), birch, and aspen. Generally the pines and deciduous trees grow upon different tracts, while even the oak, birch, and aspen severally display a marked tendency to occupy separate areas of their own. In some cases, however, the forest assumes a more or less completely mixed character. It is this varied type of forest, intercalated with open clearings and stretches of marsh and lake, that renders the enclosed area so admirably adapted for the home of deer of various kinds collected from many parts of Northern Europe and Asia, and whose habits consequently display considerable diversity.