Beasts, Men and Gods | Page 9

had broken off. When I cut into these stumps
with the ax, the head buried itself and could with difficulty be drawn
and, investigating the reason, I found them filled with pitch. Chips of
this wood needed only a spark to set them aflame and ever afterward I
always had a stock of them to light up quickly for warming my hands
on returning from the hunt or for boiling my tea.
The greater part of my days was occupied with the hunt. I came to
understand that I must distribute my work over every day, for it
distracted me from my sad and depressing thoughts. Generally, after
my morning tea, I went into the forest to seek heathcock or blackcock.
After killing one or two I began to prepare my dinner, which never had
an extensive menu. It was constantly game soup with a handful of dried
bread and afterwards endless cups of tea, this essential beverage of the
woods. Once, during my search for birds, I heard a rustle in the dense
shrubs and, carefully peering about, I discovered the points of a deer's
horns. I crawled along toward the spot but the watchful animal heard
my approach. With a great noise he rushed from the bush and I saw him
very clearly, after he had run about three hundred steps, stop on the
slope of the mountain. It was a splendid animal with dark grey coat,
with almost a black spine and as large as a small cow. I laid my rifle
across a branch and fired. The animal made a great leap, ran several
steps and fell. With all my strength I ran to him but he got up again and
half jumped, half dragged himself up the mountain. The second shot
stopped him. I had won a warm carpet for my den and a large stock of
meat. The horns I fastened up among the branches of my wall, where
they made a fine hat rack.

I cannot forget one very interesting but wild picture, which was staged
for me several kilometres from my den. There was a small swamp
covered with grass and cranberries scattered through it, where the
blackcock and sand partridges usually came to feed on the berries. I
approached noiselessly behind the bushes and saw a whole flock of
blackcock scratching in the snow and picking out the berries. While I
was surveying this scene, suddenly one of the blackcock jumped up and
the rest of the frightened flock immediately flew away. To my
astonishment the first bird began going straight up in a spiral flight and
afterwards dropped directly down dead. When I approached there
sprang from the body of the slain cock a rapacious ermine that hid
under the trunk of a fallen tree. The bird's neck was badly torn. I then
understood that the ermine had charged the cock, fastened itself on his
neck and had been carried by the bird into the air, as he sucked the
blood from its throat, and had been the cause of the heavy fall back to
the earth. Thanks to his aeronautic ability I saved one cartridge.
So I lived fighting for the morrow and more and more poisoned by hard
and bitter thoughts. The days and weeks passed and soon I felt the
breath of warmer winds. On the open places the snow began to thaw. In
spots the little rivulets of water appeared. Another day I saw a fly or a
spider awakened after the hard winter. The spring was coming. I
realized that in spring it was impossible to go out from the forest. Every
river overflowed its banks; the swamps became impassable; all the
runways of the animals turned into beds for streams of running water. I
understood that until summer I was condemned to a continuation of my
solitude. Spring very quickly came into her rights and soon my
mountain was free from snow and was covered only with stones, the
trunks of birch and aspen trees and the high cones of ant hills; the river
in places broke its covering of ice and was coursing full with foam and
bubbles.
CHAPTER IV
A FISHERMAN
One day during the hunt, I approached the bank of the river and noticed

many very large fish with red backs, as though filled with blood. They
were swimming on the surface enjoying the rays of the sun. When the
river was entirely free from ice, these fish appeared in enormous
quantities. Soon I realized that they were working up-stream for the
spawning season in the smaller rivers. I thought to use a plundering
method of catching, forbidden by the law of all countries; but all the
lawyers and legislators should be lenient to one who lives in a den
under the roots