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XVI. A Hyrcan Tiger. 



Tiger, tiger, burning bright 

 In the forests of the night, 

 What immortal hand or eye 

 Could frame thy awful symmetry ? 



ONE day, with thoughts intent on deer, we were 

 climbing a forest -covered hill, when we came on 

 a big sounder of pig. There was nothing unusual 

 in this, for the whole country was full of them. 

 The Eastern Elburz, in this respect, would be a 

 hunting Paradise for the Continental sportsman, 

 with whom this animal as one writer puts it, 

 " essentiellement harneux et doue d'un detestable 

 caract^re" ranks high among the beasts to be 

 pursued with a rifle. To the Britisher, reared in 

 the belief that the fittest death for the mighty 

 boar is by the arme blanche, pig-shooting appeals 

 but little, but it is quite possible that in this 

 superior attitude he is wrong. A Belgian official 

 at Astrabad evidently a good sportsman gave 

 me a graphic description of his hunting in the 



