The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-12-09
,rn by the maid, Of honor .

Of garments worn by the maids Of honor 10
German royalty"
The man who had travelled and hunted
now took his turn in talking Of the sable. II
saw some sable hunters in my Russian travels,r
he said. 1T was. at a town called Oevensk. a
gloomy pine forests. which furnish ugly stories
OF wolves and bears To entertain one as he jour
by habitatfon or clearing. The severe winter
weather came on earlier than we had rscLoned
was detained at Oevensk bya snow storm for
several days. I'm the second day there came
into the settlement three hunters on snowshOes
drawing behind them n sledge with broad. fiat
runners on which were. packed their camp out
skins. rolled in the hide Of an enormous bear
that they had killed after a hard fight a few
They were a savage-looklng party as they
strobe into the station stamping the snow from
their feet and shaking II from their long hair
had Firearms | did not sec them. but they carried
long knives In thelr belts and two axes and n
siedRe.. Like hunters in general, they were in
clined TO be t%aciturn and suspicious Of any ques-
d%inateiy big horns Of v01ki aud got warm and
rested after their, long tussle with the storm,
American, to tell me y little about their life and
calling. The head official at the station, an edu-
Gated Russian who spoke good English. acted NJ
interpreter, and also gave me some Information
All Of the hunters bore marks Of their hard
and dangerous life. One of them. n hall. breed
lakut, had recently been torn In the face and
shoulder by the claws of n bear. Another, a
Russian. who limped, carried on nose and ears
the marks Of frost bite: while hunting he had
missed his path in q sudden snow quail and lad
passed the night in tho forest without other
shelter than that Of pine boughs he had cut with
his axe. They had begun their hunting the LIST
of October and had been out six weeks. They
set lines OF traps for sable, some constructed on |
the principle OF the deadfall used by American
trappers and others Of the bnxtraD pattern such
as boys use in catching squirrels. Steel traps
would have been useless. as the sable, like most
o hers of the weasel family, when caught in one
will gnaw OF the imprisoned limb to escape.
In the early season before the snow gets too
deep the favorite method OF hunting the sable is
by tracking him in the snow. his trail usually
leading at last to his home in II hollow tree or
butrOw beneath tree roots near the bank Il t
some stream. When freed away from his hole
he Is nooSed with n loop cf wire or plated REIN
or Knocked to the ground with a club or blunt
arrow, firearms being resorted to only when all
means have failed, as the shot damages
the skin. RE Il smoked from II tree hollow or
hole beneath tree roots, and, upon emerging, is
caught in a net spread at the opening. II Is only
in the winter when the heres, which are his
principal food, are scarce aud difficult to catch,
that the sable IL drawn by hunger TO venture
Dften To the traps set for him, and even then he
Is wary and difficult to entice tn his destruction.
The ermine and squirrel skins that the hun
had brought IN were taken only incidental
y to the pursuit Of the sable. who himself is an
hunter of the squirrel. One sable they
had found in the act Of eating n distant relative
his family. an ermine that he had killed after
The manner OF weasels in general, by Selling 10
back of the head and biting through the spi-
nal marrow, and thus the hunters secured two
valuable SIX ins at n swoop. The three hunters
we're not inclined, however, to talk much about
where and how they had made their captures. and