MOUNTAIN GAME OF THE CAUCASUS 57 



I find that a spare bourka (native blanket) and a tanned skin 

 are useful things to take into camp with your other stores, for 

 making and repairing gaiters and moccasins. A pair of loose- 

 fitting deer-skin gloves, with (at any rate in September) another 

 pair of woollen gloves inside them, are generally worn by the 

 native hunters, and are almost a necessity. Even with two new 

 pairs of gloves to protect them, I came home, after my last 

 twenty-four hours in the ironstone rocks of Ossetia, with my 

 palms badly cut and bleeding. However, that was an ex- 

 ceptionally rough twenty-four hours in an exceptionally rough 

 bit of country, even for the Caucasus. Add to the above out- 

 fit an alpenstock (the point fire-hardened, not iron-shod), your 

 rifle, with a sling to carry it over your shoulders, your stalking 

 glass and your cartridges, with a small coil of rope, a compass, 

 matches, tobacco, a knife for skinning, and any other small 

 luxuries which you feel inclined to ' pack ' on your own 

 shoulders, or which your man offers to carry. Don't let him 

 have a rifle if you can help it. A Caucasian is as keen after 

 game as a terrier after rats, and if he has a rifle it is quite on 

 the cards that at the critical moment he may think your move- 

 ments too slow, outpace you in getting to your game, or even 

 fire over your shoulder. 



I have had this happen once in my life, at the end of a 

 long day of hard work, and think I know now what is the 

 utmost which a man can be called upon to endure at the hands 

 of his fellow-man. 



Equipped as suggested, a man should be able to stay on 

 the top of the ridge for three or four days, and in that time it 

 is hard indeed if he cannot get a shot, at fairly close range, 

 at a really good ' head.' In such quarters as he will have to 

 sleep in, there is no fear that the hunter will lie abed too long ; 

 but it is worth remembering that ibex, especially, are somewhat 

 nocturnal in their habits, and that as soon as ever it is light 

 you should be on some point of vantage from which you can 

 see your game returning from their feeding grounds to lie down 

 for the day. An old tur, when he has once settled himself for 



