Hunting the Lynx General Goering's Sport in Poland

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 85, 27 April 1937, Page 15

Hunting the Lynx General Goering's Sport in Poland

QNCE again, for the third year ln succession, the dense prlmeval depths of the gteat Polish forest of Bialowieza, the largest forest, in Europe, have been the scene of .one of those now classlc boar-Iynx-wolf hunts, in which General Goering is the chief guest of President Mosclcki and at which the latest secrets of German-Polish diplomacy are believed to be discussed round the log flre of a hunting-box. The massed trees of Bialowieza's 300,000 acres of virgin, ancient forest guard the lnnermost secrets of the talks, as they have kept intact so many other mysteries since the urox, the wild blson of Europe, first roamed their glades in vast herds in the young days of the wnrld.

Before the war there were still flve or six hundred head of urox, the last survivors of their race, at large In the forest in a wild state. The herd has dwlndled to about 50 to-day. But lt is now protected rlgidly, and in that' oldest and thickest reglon of the forest which has been preserved as a National Park one may suddenly come upon the dramar tic sight of these great shaggy' beasts lumberihg through the tall, shadowy cplumns of the pines. No trees in this forest have ever been feiled by man. When one crashes in a storm it lies to rot where It.has fallen and the undergrowth creeps over it and burles it. The Bialowieza forest lies midway between Warsaw and the Russian frontier. Down the ages it has been a famous hunting ground. TT is the home of the rapldly diminishA ing European lynx, one of the fiercest ; of the lesser big game. Big grey wolve3 prowl ite edges, to dash out from the security of the trees in a raid upon some isolated peasant farm. Elk browse in the open glades. Ivan the Terrible htmted in the Bialowieza ahd drank himself crazy at nights in a pavilion . of skins and tapestries. Every peasant girl from villages miles distant fled for safety into the blackness of the forest then. Better the fangs of a wolf, almost, than the kisses of the insane Thas. And before Ivan's time the Tartar Khans and their followers who swept westwards over Europe to the walls of Cracow loosed their twanging arrows ■through the aisles of Bialowieza and feasted' on its bucks and boars. Bialowieza village, where President Moscickl has his country house and shooting-box, lies hidden in the middle of the forest. So closely do the dark trees ring the village that it is as though I the small circular clearing had been cut lout of the forest and the village then dropped into it from above. The little timber houses of the peasants huddle timidly on the forest edge. Their front windows, bright with geraniums, cyclamen and the fay potted flowers that the Poles so love, look out Upon a rough, unmetalled road. Behind the cottages the shadows of the forest spread in eerie black depths. The road is deep in snow now, and along it sweep the jinglipg sleiglis bearing General

Goering and the other guests to the scene of the hunt. Last year General Goering waa particularly anxious to, get a lynx. He failed, for the lynxes are becoming fewer, and they are among the most cunning animals in the world. In the Bialowieza forest a special procedure is adopted for hunting the lynx. When the track of the lynx's pads have been discovered in the snow and his approximate hlding-place has been located, a sleigh containing the guns is driven in and out of the trees ln dimlnlshing circles round the lynx's lair. Probably there will be several sets of lynx tracks in the snow, some entering, some leaving the circle described by the slowly moving

sleigh. By a process of elimination, after examining the tracks, the lynxes remainlng wlthin the circle are narrowed down to a compar&tlvely concentrated area of an acre or two, and when the lynx flnally breaks cover the guns have a fair chance of hitting him. But it is usually the lynx who has the luck. rpHIS year's hunt also included a wolf A drive. If this takes place in the more open country on the rim of the forest the unique Polish method of hunting the wolf by plg-traillng will be adopted. A trlal hunt of ttils nature was carried out a few days previously. A freshly slaughtered pig was tied by its hind legs to a 30 yard rope trailed behind a fast troika (three horse) sleigh. In the back of the sleigh sat the hunters, wrapped in furs and armed with rifles. The sleigh driver sat in front, cracked his long whip over the heads of the horses, and the sleigh slid out from between the Bialowieza trees and started to skirt the dark wall of the forest at a distance of a mile or so. The dead pig bumped along behind, its blood stainlng the snow and leaving a tempting trail for any lurking wolves. A few moments later one of the hunters pointed to four black specks that had broken from the forest, and were xacing over the snow towards the sleigh. "Predkol hurry!" he shouted to the driver. The horses, scenting the wolves • behind , them, needed no whjp. Their manes lay flat along their backs as they sped over the white landscape. TJUHEN the wolves were 50 yards off one of the hunters loosed a shot. An unevenness in a snow drift threw His aim out. There was a splash of white 10 yards to hte right of the wolves. The wolves came grimly on. "Let them come up to the pig, then we'll both fire," said the other hunter, a Bialowieza forest ranger. "You can slow up a bit," he told the driver. In a few seconds the wolves had gained their 20 yards and were only inches off the pig. Both guns cracked. The bolts flew back in repeat and the hunters fired again. Four grey bodles lay stretched in the snow, and the pig bounced grotesquely to a standstill as the sleigh was pulled up. The horses were quivering all over. Nothing puts such fear into a horse as pursuit by a wolf. It is his age-old. terror in Pol^hd. gu^ia and tbe snow lands.