gloomy forest of oaks, birch, and pines; the
track down which we had come a certain length,
had been evidently cut through the hill for nearly
a mile and a half. Far below in the valley, lay
a considerable number of what my servant Harry
took to be peat-hills. Those were huts. I could
see also the cupola of a church, the chimney of
a mill, or works, and, on an adjoining eminence,
a residence of some pretension. How to get
down was a puzzle; the ground was slippery
from ice, the descent long and precipitous, and
the cattle were nearly exhausted: the last team
having come twenty miles. If our men chose to
go down with the usual clatter and dash (we had
no drags) the result might be disastrous. The
yeamscheeks, however, soon made up their
minds to try the old way, and I could see no
better way. They crossed themselves (their
infallible resource), and were gathering up the
ropes for a start, when a voice called out from
the wood on the left, "Hold, hold! Do you want
your necks broken, you fools?" I knew in a
moment, from the manner in which the Russian was
spoken, that this was the voice of an Englishman,
and as he came struggling through the
bushes and low underwood that lined the edge
of the wood, his appearance did not belie his
speech. He was short, fat, and florid; dressed
in a fur coat, long boots, and fur cap; he carried
a double-barrelled gun, and was followed by
a man much in. the same garb, but younger
taller and stronger than himself. Two great
shaggy cream-coloured wolf-dogs followed the
second man, who carried a double-barrelled
rifle, and had a large sheathed knife in his belt.
While the one was collecting breath, after
abusing the yeamscheeks for intending to gallop
down the hill, the other came up to me, and
after surveying us very deliberately, said, in
the pure Doric of canny Scotland:

"I'm just thinkin', but maybe I'm wrang, that
ye' re no unlike kintramen of ours—that is,
Englishmen, I mean ?"

I acknowledged the proud relationship, and
said,

"I seek a village called Evanofsky, and a
man called Count Pomerin; can you help a
countryman to find them?"

"Surely; the village is yonder in the glen,
and the man is not far off. May I ask if ye are
the party he wull be expecting from St. Petersburg.
If sae, he wull be right glad to see you,
but at the present moment it is impossible to
get speech of him. We've a bit hunting on
hand, you see, and Pomerin is at his post, as
we were when you cam' betwixt us and our line
of fire."

"God bless me!" I said, rather quickly;
"are we betwixt the game and the rifles?"

"That's just precesely the position we have
all the honour o' occupying at this present
moment, and in half an hour after this it might
not be unco' pleasant, but for that time, I think,
we're safe, unless for a stray beastie or sae.
Now, if you like to join the hunt, you and the
other gent-le-man, I would advise you to send
on the conveyances and contents to wait you
at Pomerin's; they will get a rayal welcome, and I
shall send an escort with them." This being
agreed on, he said to his friend, "Pins, whistle
on that Dugal crature o' yours."

Mr. Pins put a whistle to his mouth and gave
a shrill call, when presently a figure emerged
from the wood, no inapt representative of the
famous Dugal Creature in Rob Roy. He had
bandy legs, a great mass of tangled red hair on
his head and face, red ferret eyes, and he dressed
in a felt coat which reached only to the knees,
a wolf-skin cape, and large boots, a world too
wide for him; and a short-handed axe stuck in
his belt. Mr. Saunderson had made some sign
which I did not observe, that brought his henchman,
a man of like sort, also to the spot. These
having received their orders, proceeded to drag
the wheels. In a few minutes two young trees
were cut down, and, having been chopped into
the right length, were thrust between the spokes
and across the hind-wheels of the carriages.
Having thus effectually put on a safety-drag,
the two 'Dugal creatures,' large and small,
mounted beside the drivers, but Harry and I
remained behind with the ammunition, guns, and
pistols, and then the vehicles began sliding
down the hill without us, in a very comfortable
manner.

WITH THE HUNTSMEN.

I had often heard of a hunt in the interior,
and was glad, although fatigued, to join one. The
plan is something akin to the ancient practice of
deer-hunting in the Scottish Highlands. In the
present case, however, the game was different:
not deer, but wolves, bears, foxes, and other vermin,
which had been found very destructive and
troublesome for some time past. The greater number
of the men of several villages, including every
man who could handle a gun, had turned out. I
attached myself to Mr. Saunderson, Harry joined
Mr. Pins, and we followed our new acquaintances
into the wood from which they had come upon
us. On entering, I could see that preparations
had been made on a large scale. Just inside the
wood, and extending a long way—perhaps to
near the bottom of the hill to the left, and for a
less distance to the right—men armed with guns,
rifles, pistols, knives, old scythes, and other
such weapons, were stationed thirty yards or
less apart from one another, while, behind
each, a horse was picketed to a tree. Many
of the principal rifle and armed men, like my
friends Pins and Saunderson, had 'Dugal
creatures,' or peasant-serfs attached to them,
having in charge dogs, horses, and other
accessories. The whole party formed two lines,
probably a mile and a half long; the first line
armed; behind it, the unarmed and the horses.
On the opposite side of the road, and on the
trees in front, was a strong net, ten or twelve
feet high, extending up and down hill, as far as
I could see, parallel with the road, leaving the
road itself convenient for the work of slaughter,
while the men might fire into the net at pleasure
from the cover, advance into the open, or mount
and run in case of danger. How the net was
secured, or what resistance it might make