TSFL/S. 217 



danger in it, and who care very little for a large 

 bag if it is not owing mainly to their own skill 

 or exertions. But of the Russians whom I have 

 met in three to four years in the Crimea and 

 Caucasus, I cannot say so much. A Russian, 

 though he invariably has some chaff for an Eng- 

 lishman on the score of tame pheasants, &c., is 

 essentially either a pot-shot if a peasant, or a lover 

 of battues if he be a gentleman. At K arias (the vice- 

 regal preserves) all the shooting is of the battue 

 order. At another great sporting centre in the 

 Caucasus, where a prince preserves the shooting 

 and wild sheep and chamois abound, even the 

 chamois are cleverly deluded into becoming vic- 

 tims of a drive. Deer- stalking, as we understand 

 it, and chamois-hunting, as the hardy Swiss follow 

 it, is a sport unknown here, except to the Tartars 

 of Dagliestan. 



Although there is a plentiful supply of ante- 

 lopes near Tiflis, all those that find their way into 

 the bazaar are run down by mounted Tartars, 

 none being stalked by Russians. 



And yet, after their own fashion, Russians are 

 very keen about sport. They love to organise a 

 party, and are extremely hospitable to the stranger 

 in making him one of it ; but if that stranger be a 

 keen sportsman, and has his mind full of visions 

 of great game to be found and killed in their native 

 fastnesses, the sight of the enormous supplies of 



