A Trip to Pilawin, the Deer-park of Count Joseph Potocki in Volhynia, RussiaLydekker, Richard
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A Trip to Pilawin, the Deer-park of Count Joseph Potocki in Volhynia, Russia
Lydekker, Richard
Game reserves; Pilawin (Volhynia, Ukraine)
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.
[Illustration: 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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