Preparing for the Chase
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In some districts, agriculture is tolerably well conducted. The forests are an important source of wealth, and supply excellent timber. They abound also with game, of which every landowner is the sole proprietor of all on his domain. In this manner, many noblemen, in addition to the bears and wolves, the latter of which are sometimes very destructive to the cattle, may count whole herds of deer, elks, foxes, and lynxes, among their live stock. But as in any of the German provinces it is never customary for one noble to exclude another from his hunting- grounds, each landholder is privileged to sport over the whole country. The rich landowners sometimes invite all their neighbors for twenty miles round to a great hunt (the preparation for which is seen in the engraving on the following page). The field is then taken for eight successive days against the shy inhabitants of the forest, in sledges, droskies, and coaches, or on horseback, accompanied by multitudes of peasants and dogs.
see more - The Baltic Provinces