MOUNTAIN GAME OF THE CAUCASUS 51 



Caucasian chamois is generally found fairly low down, just 

 above timber limit, or in summer round the lower edges of the 

 glaciers. There is seldom a day in the mountains when the 

 tiunter will not hear that long whistle so strangely human in 

 its note, and, turning, find that he has been detected by the 

 mountain sentinel. In Svanetia I have seen chamois in large 

 herds (one herd which I remember numbered at least fifty head), 

 and every ' sakli ' has its crevices or its roof adorned with the 

 little black horns. 



But the tiir is the mountain beast, par excellence^ of the 

 Caucasus. The chamois is looked upon as comparatively small 

 game. 



' Tiir ' is a native name, and is applied to several different 

 beasts indiscriminately. 



When a Svan, or an Ossete, or any man, native or Russian, 

 talks to you of tiir in the main chain between Kazbek and 

 Elbruz, he means either Caucasian ibex or Caucasian burrhel. 



Of the two in Svanetia the ibex is the commoner beast, while, 

 judging by the horns found in the saklis, the burrhel is com- 

 moner in the Mamisson district. I have, however, seen the 

 burrhel in Svanetia, and any intelligent native hunter will tell 

 you that there are two kinds of ttlr in his country, one with 

 notched and one with smooth horns. There are now specimens 

 of both in the Natural History Museum at Kensington, and any 

 one who will take the trouble to compare them will find abundant 

 points of difference, though their general similarity of appear- 

 ance is enough to account for the confusion which exists among 

 native hunters. The burrhel {Capra pallasi or cylindricornis) 

 stands about 3 feet high at ihe shoulder (a big ram would stand 

 higher), and measures from shoulder to rump about 3 inches 

 more than that. His horns are something like the Indian bur- 

 rhel's, not being indented, and turning out laterally before bend- 

 ing back. The coat of the burrhel is hard and deer-like, in 

 colour closely resembling that of the ibex, both beasts being 

 furnished by nature with coats of reddish brown to match the 

 ironstone rocks amongst which they live. In the ibex {Capra 



