3io FROM GOKTCHAI TO LENKORAN. 



with the forester himself soon set this right, and 

 in his house I saw the skin of a recently killed 

 leopard, which gave me greater hope of success than 

 I had dared hitherto to indulge in. On the day 

 after my arrival I was lucky enough to make the 

 acquaintance of a German gentleman named Miiller, 

 who from the moment he discovered my nationality 

 took me under his especial care. We met first at 

 the house of one of the sportsmen of Lenkoran, 

 who, having heard of my arrival, had arranged a 

 banquet in my honour. Here, after dinner, whilst 

 discussing the chance of seeing a tiger a chance 

 which grew more and more remote the more I 

 pursued it one of the guests proposed that I should 

 make a house of his in the neighbouring forest my 

 head centre during my stay. This hut he called 

 the ' Shabby Shanty,' and the chance of resting under 

 the roof of a house with an Irish name and an 

 English-speaking master, with capital sport all 

 round, was too good to be refused ; so us usual I 

 decided on the spur of the moment to entrust my- 

 self to my new friend's care,. 



It is only fair to say that wherever I went in 

 Russia, I invariably met with realy hospitality, so 

 much so that my whole journey was little more 

 than a series of expeditions begun, if not finished, 

 under the auspices and at the suggestion of some 

 new-found friend. 



