ASIATIC GAME HERDS. 8 I 



of a splendid band of upwards of 100 elk. Never shall I 

 forget (he says) the grand and imposing appearance they 

 presented, like a regiment of cavalry as they passed along 

 the plain, the old stags with branching antlers leading the 

 van. " * 



The cariboo (Cervus Tarandus) however (the American 

 variety of the reindeer), during their annual migrations 

 occasionally appear in immense assemblages in the 

 sub-arctic regions of North Western Canada; f so 

 also the prong-horned antelope (A. Fucifer) in the fall 

 of the year is, or rather was, occasionally seen in 

 large herds upon the western plains. 



In Asia, likewise, these migratory assemblages of 

 game have occasionally been recorded as occurring 

 upon its boundless central table-lands ; thus near Kaviz 

 in eastern Persia, Ferriers reports numerous herds 

 of many kinds of game being seen. 



" The deer (he says) were feeding in herds of several 

 hundreds, and at no great distance from each other. They 

 were not frightened at our approach and frequently remained 

 within gunshot. The wild asses were quite numerous but 

 fled at the least noise." "Near Kassan the game is collected 

 in prodigious quantities, pheasants, blackcock, hares, par- 

 tridges; also boars, deer, wild asses and carnivorous animals 

 in great numbers." 



We might go on to chronicle truly marvellous 

 assemblages of small game, and of wild fowl, in dif- 

 ferent parts of the world some anecdotes of bird 

 life of this kind will however be mentioned in our 

 chapter on Wild Fowl and Wild Fowl Shooting. 



The rabbit, in Australia for instance, alone, would 



* The Solitary Htinter on the Prairies, 1856, by Captain John Palliser. 

 f See our Chapter on "The Arctic Zone." Chapter x. Vol. ii, 

 Caravan Jozirneys, by J. P. Ferriers, 1856, p. 141. 



VOL. III. 6 



