The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1913-04-18

know or hear very little aDOut
A sport in Roumania- Many
people, therefore, are sur
prised to learn that in the for
ests of Moldavia there exist today sew
eral species of big game, most OF
which are the largest Of their kind
now living in Europe. The list OF
game is by no means a small one
containing as it does red deer, roe.
deer, chamois, bears, wild boar
wolves, lynx, foxes and wildcats. On
one large private estate, which is Wen
known to the writer, you can IND all
these animals with the exception OF
chamois The red deer here are noto-
rious for the size of their antlers,
which on the average exceed even
those now found in the Carpath1ans.
The roedeer, too, can boast of horns
which put to shame the best heads
from Austria and Germany. Also the
brown bears grow to size which is
seldom approached by any other Euro
pean bear. And the reader can certify
this statement by glancing at photo
graph which accompanies this article,
and depicts a roadside scene when the
writer recently encountered travel
ing troupe of bear trainers. 1t Is Wor-
thy of note that the largest bear IN
this group is only female, and. as
every sportsman knows, the males
grow to far greater size.
Animals Are LARGE.
But above all animals the giant
wild boars of Roumania stand in a
class by themselves. So much larger
are the old boars there than speci-
mems found in other parts of Europe
that one is almost inclined to classify
them as distinct species.
It is probable that the abnormal
size of the Roumanian big game is
owing to the fact that the woods there
are SO rich in natural feeding grounds.
For here in the vast forests are count
less acres of beech and oak trees,
while the open glades are densely
clothed with luxuriant grasses and
wild flowers which often reach to the
height of a mans shoulder In sum-
mer time the mountain slopes are
thickly strewn with a profusion of
wild fruits and berries, so dearly be-
loved by bears. So dense are the for
ests that it is seldom possible to ap-
proach game other than roedeer or
chamois by stalking them. Conse-
quently 1t is only during winter
months, when big drives are organ
lied, that much shooting is done. But
during the past summer the writer
and a friend happened to be staying
on the finest estate for big game in
Roumania. Their real object was a
fishing expedition; but a steady Sc
quence of many days rain having
turned the rivers into state resem-
bling pea soup, in desperation it was
decided that they must kill something.
Hence one morning, when a forester
reported that wild boars were numer-
GUS and much in evidence by their
nightly depredations on his beat. we
determined to move our quarters from
a comfortable house and betake our
selves to the woods, where we pro-
posed to try what the Americans call
still hunting" for boars Since this
method was somewhat unorthodox.
our good host, who was himself a
great sportsman, was rather skeptical
about our chances OF seeing game.
Having reQuisitioned the services
of two pack ponies, and accompanied
by couple of foresters, we set ont
on a short trek Of about six miles =
a spot where an old abandoned loo
cabin, on the edge of a forest clear.
ing, appealed to US strongly az a good
camping ground Since nv comnan.
ion, s.. and myself were both old
campaigners. it was not long befora
camp was fixed up. and towards evan-
ing we wandered on to take nm noa,.
lions near to the place where the
boars fed at night
Battle With Mosquitoes.
For some two hours we waited mo
tionless. save for our enforced move.
ments to repel the attacks Of count.
less mosquitoes which suddenly an
peared In such numbers and were 81
vicious that they reminded us of
many months which we had spent IN
former years on the shores Of Alasta
and Siberia. combating BY day 81
night the onslaughts OF these naata
Soon after the sun had. sunk to rert
beyond the highest peak away on the
Hungarian frontier our ears were -