Part 2

Among the wonders of the Antoniny palace are its enormous wine-cellars, containing vast stores of rare vintages, of which the earliest is a superb Tokay of 1693; these were visited after dinner, when we were attended by a number of servants bearing lighted candles on long wooden holders.

The gardens also--now rather more than a century old--cannot be passed over without some mention, as they are almost a dream of beauty and picturesqueness. Exquisitely kept, and situated on undulating ground intersected with streams, and dotted with small lakes, these gardens, which occupy many acres, are noted not only for their gorgeous display of flowers, but likewise for their splendid timber, consisting chiefly of spruce, aspen, oak, and sycamore, many of the trees being of unusual height and symmetry, while all have been planted with a view to the general effect. The large white Roman snail (Helix pomatia) is abundant in the gardens, where, however, it may have been introduced, as I did not notice its presence elsewhere.

Yet one more feature of the domain remains to be noticed, namely its magnificent range of stabling, which faces the main front of the palace, and can have but few rivals, either in size or in fittings. The stables and stud are under the control of a “master of the horse.” The mention of stabling naturally suggests a few words concerning the famous Arab stud, which is kept half a mile or so away from the palace, and has no rival in Europe except in Mr. Wilfrid Scawen Blunt’s well-known Arab stud in England. The greater number of Count Potocki’s Arabs have been bred on the estate; and there is indeed at the present time only a single mare imported direct from Arabia. With the bare mention that there is an equally large stud of Anglo-Arabs and thoroughbreds, as well as a pack of stag-hounds and another of harriers, the other splendours of Antoniny must be left to the imagination of the reader.

Antoniny is, to a great extent, a self-supporting colony, having a large range of outbuildings and workshops, where almost everything required on the establishment is manufactured. All other supplies have to be carted by road, either from Schepetowka or from a station on the Lemberg line, on the Austrian side.

To reach Antoniny from the railway at Schepetowka our route lay nearly due south. Pilawin, on the other hand, lies about eighty kilometres north of the railway, and we had therefore to return to Schepetowka; this journey being accomplished on the Saturday in about three and a half hours, the road being in much better condition than on the previous Thursday. Saturday night was spent in a small single-storeyed house belonging to our host at Schepetowka; and by nine o’clock on the Sunday morning we were ready to start for Pilawin.

Here a few lines may be devoted to the nature of the country between Antoniny and Schepetowka. Throughout the whole district the soil consists of black alluvial mould, apparently extending to a great depth. The contour of the country takes the form of a series of low undulating and more or less nearly parallel ridges or hills, separated by wide valleys, and running to a considerable extent at right angles to the main direction of the road. In each valley is a river or a series of ponds, near to which a village is almost invariably situated. The rich soil yields luxuriant crops of wheat, oats, maize, millet, buckwheat, hemp, and sugar-beet; the latter being a crop yielding a large revenue to the owner. Although the country as a whole is open--reminding one, were it not for the undulations, strongly of Argentina--oak-forests are to be met with here and there. From the ponds and rivers are obtained abundance of carp and pike, which afford the fish-supply to the inhabitants of the district on fast days as well as on other occasions.

At Schepetowka occurs a deposit of thin-bedded sandy limestone mixed with sand, containing numbers of marine shells of Tertiary age; this sand being employed at Antoniny and elsewhere as gravel. I collected some of these shells on the garden-paths at Antoniny, and when I returned home took them to the British Museum, where they were identified as Trochus podolicus, a species characteristic of the Sarmatian stage of the Miocene division of the Tertiary period. As the species was unrepresented in the collection, the specimens were a welcome addition to the Museum. Later on, when visiting one of the Count’s sugar-factories at Koretz (a large town on the Kieff road near Pilawin), I was shown specimens of a white limestone containing marine fossils. At the British Museum these were identified as Trochus podolicus and Mactra podolica; the latter species also belonging to the Sarmatian stage, and likewise unrepresented in the collection. The Mactra, it may be added, is a bivalve, and the Trochus a spiral univalve shell.

See Geikie’s Text-Book of Geology, 1st edition, p. 867.

Reverting to the Schepetowka district, it remains to refer to the occurrence of large erratic blocks of a grey syenitic gneiss (commonly miscalled granite) which are used for road-metal, and likewise as an ornamental building stone at Antoniny. What I take to be the same rock is found in situ at Koretz, where it forms the foundation of an ancient ruined castle belonging to the Count. I was also interested in a rock containing fine blue crystals of Labrador felspar, polished balls of which are displayed at the entrance of Antoniny.

To the northward of Schepetowka the nature of the country undergoes a remarkable change, the soil becoming sandy in place of alluvial, and magnificent forests of Scotch fir replacing the cultivated ground and oak-forests on the south side of the line. In these forests, a short distance from Schepetowka, wild boars are still numerous, although the number of head is believed to have been reduced by the severity of last winter. The huge size attained by the Schepetowka boars is demonstrated by a magnificent specimen--the gift of Count Potocki--exhibited in the Natural History branch of the British Museum at South Kensington.

After continuing for about a dozen or fifteen miles, the pine-forests cease, and we are once more on open cultivated land, which continues all the way to Pilawin; the soil being, however, more sandy and lighter in colour than that of the Antoniny district.

Only one change of horses was made on this journey, and that when only about one-third the distance had been accomplished. Despite the frightful condition of the roads and torrents of rain, the second team covered the sixty odd kilometres at a long swinging trot, which was only broken for short intervals twice during the journey. The last few miles before reaching the Pilawin forests were, however, on a macadamised road--the great military road from Warsaw to Kieff. Turning off from this road to the left some few miles after leaving Koretz, the final stage to Pilawin--about seven kilometres--was almost entirely through magnificent primeval forest. At the turning we were met by an escort of twelve Don Cossacks (whose duty it is to patrol the park), who rode alongside and behind the carriage till our destination was reached at 3.30, the whole eighty kilometres from Schepetowka having thus been covered, despite the heavy rain, in six-and-a-half hours.

The forest tract to which Count Potocki has given the name of Pilawin (a title connected with the ancient family crest) comprises about seven thousand acres enclosed by an eight-foot timber paling, replaced, however, in front of the shooting-lodge by wire fencing. The area of the whole forest from which Pilawin is cut off is about thirty thousand acres.

Passing through the ponderous rustic entrance gates, cleverly constructed of birch and aspen poles, and surmounted by some fine pairs of antlers and the Potocki crest, we first came upon a spacious open enclosure containing a couple of fine bears, now about two years old, which were captured as cubs in Lithuania by a friend of the Count. In the enclosure are a couple of tall dead birch-trees, up which the bears are in the habit of climbing. They are also provided with a kind of cavern, or den, in which they spend much of their time when the weather is hot; and they likewise have a bath.

Leaving these guardians, a few yards farther on we reached the picturesque and gabled shooting-lodge which was to form our residence for the next ten days; the Count and his family being quartered at another residence, at Pisczow, some four miles distant on the farther side of the Kieff road.

This shooting-lodge--which is in telephonic communication with all the other residences of the Count--is picturesquely situated on the western side of the Pilawin preserve, and overlooks in front a wide stretch of open cornfields, bordered by dense forest of Scotch pine, oak, and birch, with a few clumps of larch; while at the back the forest comes up to within a few yards of the building itself.

Constructed entirely of wood, and erected by the local workmen under the superintendence of Mr. Sokalski, an Austrian Pole, who occupies the post of director of the preserve, the Pilawin shooting-lodge is a spacious two-storeyed building capable of affording excellent accommodation for three or four guests, and likewise containing the director’s offices and the dwelling-rooms of the head forester. The exterior is covered with large sheets of birch-bark, thus giving to the building the appearance at a distance of being constructed of blocks of white stone.

The main apartment, on the first floor, which serves both as dining-room and smoking-room, is adorned with a number of sporting and natural history trophies, including numerous elk, wapiti, and other antlers, together with stuffed specimens of the white-tailed eagle (Haliaëtus albicilla), the spotted eagle (Aquila heliaca), capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), and the rare black stork (Ciconia nigra).

I was specially interested in an imperfect antler dug up some years ago in the neighbourhood, which the owner had been unable to identify. It is, however, clearly a reindeer antler, although different from any specimen that has hitherto come under my notice. I think it may indicate an extinct local race of the species, although I may be able to write more definitely on this point when a cast (which the owner will endeavour to have prepared) reaches the British Museum. From a distributional point of view this antler is of considerable interest, as it serves to connect the present habitat of the reindeer with Hungary, where fossil antlers also occur. Till recently reindeer remains were unknown to the southward of the Alps and Carpathians; but at a depth of two mètres in a sand-bed beneath brick-earth at Ober-Laibach, in Krain, there has been found a portion of an antler of this species, now preserved in the museum at Laibach. This specimen is of the age of the so-called diluvium. Since in Bavaria and North Germany remains of the reindeer are abundant in deposits of the polished stone (Neolithic) age, while they are absent in the refuse-heaps of the Swiss pile-villages, the inference is that the species had become extinct in the Alps by the time of the diluvial epoch.

Another broken antler in the apartment dates back to the time--at least four centuries ago--when wild red deer still inhabited the surrounding forests.

The finest pair of elk-antlers in the apartment possesses a special and distinctly pathetic interest of its own. These antlers, I was informed by the Count, belonged to an elk which two seasons ago attacked and killed an unfortunate peasant on the estate. As the triumphant elk was departing from the scene of the murder, it was immediately attacked by a pugnacious wapiti with such vigour and determination, that after a short but severe encounter the death of the peasant was summarily avenged.

A few words may be here conveniently devoted to the vegetation of these magnificent forests, which it is the object of their owner to preserve as much as possible in their original condition. In fact, the only changes that have been made are the construction of carriage roads (with a total length of about one hundred kilometres), the clearing away of fallen and half-fallen timber, the removal of superfluous under-covert, the draining of some of the swamps, and the construction of artificial lakes and of open spaces in the forest where abundant provender can be grown for the deer and bison.

The forest consists mainly of Scotch fir, oak (of two kinds), birch, and aspen. Generally the pines and deciduous trees grow upon different tracts, while even the oak, birch, and aspen severally display a marked tendency to occupy separate areas of their own. In some cases, however, the forest assumes a more or less completely mixed character. It is this varied type of forest, intercalated with open clearings and stretches of marsh and lake, that renders the enclosed area so admirably adapted for the home of deer of various kinds collected from many parts of Northern Europe and Asia, and whose habits consequently display considerable diversity.

Many of the firs in the forest are of gigantic dimensions, one in particular measuring no less than twelve feet in girth at a man’s height from the ground.

One peculiarity of the Pilawin forest--shared by no other in the district--is the presence of numerous luxuriant patches of the Crimean azalea (Azalea pontica), a species whose nearest natural habitat is the Crimea. According to local tradition, it was introduced from there to Pilawin by Tatars about two centuries ago; the seed having been conveyed in the nose-bags of their horses. The yellow blossoms of this fine azalea impart an unwonted brilliance to large patches of the Pilawin forest in spring. At the time of my visit there was an abundance of edible berries of the cranberry and bilberry type.

As Pilawin has only been enclosed for about four years, it may be regarded as still in the experimental stage; but so far as it has at present gone, the experiment promises to be a distinct success.

As the climate in winter is extremely severe, it is obvious that only hardy species can be expected to thrive; and it is the main object of the owner that the representatives of these should appear as if they were living in a really wild state. To what extent he has succeeded in this, will be apparent in the sequel. When the Pilawin park was first enclosed, the only large game in the forest were roedeer, of which a certain number were included within the ring-fence. These have now increased and multiplied to such an extent that roebuck-shooting is permitted in Pilawin; and, indeed, is almost necessary in order to keep the number of these deer within proper limits. In connection with these roebuck it may be mentioned that during the unusually severe winter of 1906-1907 a considerable number of them succumbed to the effects of the cold, whereas not a single death occurred among the introduced species.

With the exception of the wild boars referred to above as inhabiting the pine-forests near Schepetowka, roebuck are the only big game now to be met with in the district immediately around Pilawin. Elk occur, however, in the forests about forty miles to the northwards, and an occasional straggler from these may make its appearance near the preserve in spring.