BIG GAME SHOOTING 



CHAPTER II 



THE CAUCASUS 

 BY CLIVE PHILLIPPS-WOLLEY 



I. INTRODUCTORY 



ALTHOUGH the Caucasus is within a week's journey of Charing 

 Cross, to the average Englishman it is as little known as 

 Alaska. As a hunting ground for big game it is infinitely less 

 known than Central Africa. The men who have shot in Africa 

 and written of their sport in that country may be counted by 

 the score ; but, as far as I know, up to the present moment no 

 book has been written (except my own) 1 upon the sport of 

 the Caucasus, and in this chapter I am obliged to rely upon my 

 own experience and some rough notes sent me by Mr. St. George 

 Littledale. That being so, it may well be that much has been 

 omitted which may hereafter become common knowledge ; I can 

 only affirm that the statements made are trustworthy, as being 

 the outcome of actual personal experience, unvarnished and 

 undiluted. 



To me the Caucasus is an enchanted land. The spell of 

 its flower-clad steppes, of its dense dreamy forests, of its giant 

 wall of snow peaks, fell upon me whilst I was still a boy, and 

 will be with me all my life through. It was the first country 

 in which I ever hunted, and it may be that I am prejudiced 

 in its favour on that account, or it may be that I am right, 

 that there is no country under heaven so beautiful and none 

 in which the witchery of sport is so strong. Let my confession 



1 Sport in the Crimea and Caucasus and Savage Svanetia. Bentley & Son. 



