24 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



your hunting ground. The cost of the journey from London 

 to Vladikavkaz by this route is about (including food, &c.) 20/., 

 or as much more as you like to make it.^ From St. Petersburg 

 to the Don the level lands of Russia glide by your carriage 

 window unbroken by a single hill— I had almost said by a sini^le 

 tree. After Voroneze you enter the steppe country proper, a 

 sea of flowers in spring, a perfect hell of dust, or mud, or wind, 

 for all the rest of the year. From Voroneze these steppes roll 

 right up to the foot of the main chain of the Caucasus, and stand- 

 ing on the plains near Naltchik you may see at a co2ip d'oeil 

 some hundreds of versts of snow-capped mountains rising like a 

 sheer wall drawn from the north-east to the south-west of the 

 peninsula. These snow-capped mountains and the ' black hills ' 

 (as the natives call the densely wooded foot-hills) constitute 

 the principal game preserve of the country, and resemble, in 

 their appearance and in the varieties of game with which they 

 abound, the hill country of India, to such an extent that an 

 old friend of mine, whose happiest days had been spent in 

 shikar in the Himalayas, used to allege that all the game beasts 

 found in the Caucasus were mere varieties of the Indian fauna. 



Before dealing with the different districts and the game 

 found in each, a few general hints to the traveller may not 

 come amiss. 



The Caucasus is the arena of the hardest fight Russia ever 

 fought, and, having partially depopulated the country, she still 

 holds it by force of arms. That being so, the more unpre- 

 tentious a traveller is, the better is his chance of passing un- 

 questioned about the country. Strong introductions from 

 home and from the Foreign Office are more likely to hamper 

 than to help, and if you want leave to go to any little 

 travelled district, the best way is to take it. If you ask for 

 it you are likely to be refused, but if you go in quietly, with 

 a small outfit, and devote )'ourself exclusively to hunting, no 

 one is Hkely to interfere with you. 



The best outfit in the Caucasus is that which comes 

 nearest to the hunter's beau ideal, i.e. as much as he can carry 



