Прыгоды з жыцця прыроды
Adventures from the life of nature
Вячаслаў Грамыка
Для сярэдняга школьнага ўзросту
Выдавец: Беларусь
Памер: 263с.
Мінск 2003
Kuzmich was running on his hunter skis quicker than usually swinging his hands broadly. His companions, not expecting such agility on his part, were surprised with the old man and could hardly catch up with him. And he only looked back now and again, urged them on and even shouted:
“The wolves, brother, ain't gonna wait! If we are slow, we won't be able to close round in time, then we shall fail.”
In such a strained movement, now speeding up the already rapid run, now gradually slowing it down, the group of the hunters, headed by Kuzmich, approached the forest. As soon as they reached its edge, the old man stopped, ordered the hunters not to make unnecessary noise and meditated a little bit.
***
He had much to think over. They had to start things going. It's not so easy to close wolves round. Sometimes wolves may mislead the most experienced hunter. That is why, when hunting them, it is necessary to be very attentive.
Kuzmich remembered how, one day, he was chasing a mature wolf. Two or three times the beast of prey got off the road and came back again, then it ran to a high conifer bush, dashed back and having walked through a dense thicket some one hundred fifty steps more, lied down. Meanwhile, the forester lost its track. But having examined attentively the forest road from both sides, Kuzmich noticed all of a sudden the rush of the sly aside by the same conifer bush.
Man can never chance upon its last track at once and while he is following the former track along the road, a wolf will smell the danger and hide unnoticed. Before a man realizes what the matter is, the wolf is gone “with the wind”.
Once four wolves entered the closed round — the leader and three young she-wolves. When they were encircled with flags and raised from their bed, it turned out there were five of them. Later on the hunters managed to find out with difficulty that at the time the circle was being enclosed, a middle-aged she-wolf entered the place of battue through an “unblocked” section, along the same track. Much guess work is needed here.
The old forester knew much about this business and he didn't particularly worry about himself, but the group, in any case, had to be divided into two and they had to pass the wolves round from both sides simultaneously. Anything could be expected from a less experienced hunter. He could even sometimes overlook wolfs jumping down and would not always adequately understand the intricacy of their tracks. But for this work Kuzmich had chosen the most experienced and reliable hunters hoping they would cope successfully with their task.
He advised to pay particular attention to which riding roads were on their way, since wolves often use them. And if there is a track by the side of such road, it is absolutely necessary to carefully examine whether the beasts had taken and crossed it. They often resort to this, making a long jump somewhere from behind a bush or a low fur-tree, which cover their tracks and they leap right onto the road. Then it would be hard to calculate how many tracks go inside the battue and how many — from out of it. And how can you understand then whether wolves are inside the battue or they have already left it. It is particularly difficult to reveal tracks of lonely wolves when they merge with a combined track; this can also disturb the work, misleading a hunter.
Most unexpected moments may take place in such an operation. That is why it is necessary to have an exact knowledge of the number of wolves in the area and places they keep to. Of course, particular attention should be paid to a mature she-wolf, which is the leader of the pack. The rest of the family usually
stays by her side, but it happens that several wolves walk aside, in particular this can be expected from young wolves. And young she-wolves may even abandon the family for a certain period together with an old wolf, though it happens on rare occasions; nevertheless, all this should be taken into consideration.
The main thing here is not to miss a single track and thoroughly calculate how many of them are in the area of the battue and how many are out of it. Because, having enclosed the circle after arranging the battue, only by this one can judge whether wolves had remained in the place of the battue. The presence of one spare entry track tells about it. For example, if four tracks lead inside the place of the battue and three come out of it, it means that wolves are in the place of the battue, but this is not so simple either.
Kuzmich also drew attention of his companions to the fact that during the battue they might even happen to see wolves. It would be very bad. Still they should try and pretend that people had not noticed them. Then wolves might not react to this. But if they suspected something, everything would be spoiled. The mature ones would not lead the pack to their lying place to the nearest forest, they would not lie down close to the bait, but lead the brood to distant thickets.
Having told quickly all this to his partners, the forester divided all of them into two groups — each consisting of two men. Kuzmich sent the two most experienced hunters to act independently and took one of them with him. They have also distributed among themselves the flags and supplies they had taken just in case.
First of all, they set the largest coil into operation. Kuzmich fixed it together with a special support on the back of his partner in such a way that, under the strain of the rope, the coiled would rotate easily, unwinding the cord. He showed the hunter the direction in which he had to move and sent him forward. Following him, he corrected his movement from time to time, fastened the cord with flags to the rods of bushes and tree branches. The second pair of hunters did the same. They started from the same place, having tied securely the front edges of cords
to the trank of a birch tree, which served at the same time as a reliable reference point of the beginning of the battue.
It was the second half of winter. Any moment wolves would have to start their marriage rituals and after that it would not be possible to keep them in one place; during this period they are wandering around the forest all day long, changing places.
***
Winter days are short. At four o'clock it grows dark and there are still so many things to be done.
The old forester was walking with habitual hasty pace. Here with one hand and there with two he was fixing the cord on the brushwood smoothing out the flags at the same time, so that they could be seen better from the distance. Sometimes he even pushed the hunter who was walking slowly ahead. As for the old man, he managed to fix the flags, observe attentively the tracks and determine the direction of movement.
Gradually they deviated to the right and the line of flags was increasing, became longer.
Here, the first coil has run short of the cord. The man making the battue, who was going in advance, was so absorbed in his work, that he even didn't expect that. And when suddenly the end of the cord secured on the coil pulled him back, he fell down into the snow in surprise and jumped up perplexedly. Perhaps, he thought that it was a wolf, who “caressed” him on the back, even the reserved and serious Kuzmich could not help from laughing.
But there was no time for fun. The old man deftly caught the loop of the first cord, swiftly inserted the tip from another skein into it and having handed it over to his partner showed him again the direction and began unwinding the skein with flags further, spreading out flags over bushes at the height of 70 — 80 centimeters above the snow cover.
When this cord was also over, the forester stopped and let his partner rest. As for himself, he slid on his skis to one side, then to another, then vanished at all in the thicket for some twenty minutes. His companion even began to worry.
Meanwhile, the old man keenly listened to the sounds of the forest. He estimated that they should have covered more than half of the route, somewhere here the group coming from the opposite direction had to appea.. It is forbidden to cry in such situation. He only instructed them to talk in a low voice as soon as they find themselves approximately in the middle of the enclosed circle, yet there were no voices heard.
What was happening? It seemed everything had been told in detail. Where could they deviate from the planned direction?
The old man returned to his partner. He waited there for several minutes, then made his way closer to the swamp overgrown with moss, where the second group could have lost its way because of low forest and lack of bushes necessary to fix the cord. He had run about a hundred meters when he got out on a clearing of low bushes he saw the two hunters in the distance.
They deviated considerably to the right from the determined direction. Moreover, they were delayed on their way.
The old man ran swiftly towards them. “Why are you scratching here like cats in a bag? Hell, there is no rage left already, yokha-makha!” he murmured discontentedly. “Come on, give me the cord.”
He grabbed the skein quickly with his rough fingers and went in the direction from where he had just come. Alas, the cord was soon over and about half of a hundred steps remained to the determined place. Here he didn't wait any longer till the latecomers catch up with him, but snatched the prepared reel out from his bosom and quickly spreading out flags over small bushes, enclosed that vast circle.
“Well now let's think together,” he meditated on assembling everybody in a group. 'How many tracks have you counted on your stretch?'
“Three tracks led in and two out,” the hunter with a big moustache answered. “I think we had been looking attentively and it seems that there are no any special wolf tricks on this stretch.”
“Though we were late the work was done perfectly well,” his partner added.
“We'll see,” the experienced old forester answered. “Every fruit has its time. And now, please, keep silent for a moment.”
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