SHOXES OF THE CASPIAN. 311 



CHAPTER XIV. 



SHORES OF THE CASPIAN. RETURN TO TIFLIS. 



Lenkoran Abundance of game Eryvool forest Native fowlers A 

 bunting lodge Swarming coverts Wild boar A paradise for 

 sportsmen Pigs at bay ' Old Slrirka ' and his quarry A dying 

 eagle Caspian woodpeckers Festive nigbts Watching for a 

 tiger Forest life by night The eagle-owl and his prey End of 

 a long vigil The rainy season The streets of Lenkoran The 

 return journey to Tiflis Adventure at Adji Kabool Experi- 

 ences of post-travel Bullying a station-master Armenian Pro- 

 testants Russian telegraph service In miserable plight A spill 

 over a precipice Refitting our tarantasse Argumentum ad 

 hominem An awkward predicament Chasing a yemstchik 

 Renewed life at Tiflis Great snow-fall Running down antelope 

 The ' black death.' 



LENKORAN is almost surrounded by marshes, in 

 which snipe and woodcock, with all manner of 

 long-legged, long-necked strangers to a British 

 eye, together with hundreds of the falcon tribe, 

 disport themselves daily. Here my man and my- 

 self spent a day or two shooting specimens of the 

 birds least known to us ; but on the third day we 

 took horse and rode to a larger lake, on which we 

 embarked with our friend the German, intending to 

 cross over to the woods which fringed the further 

 side, somewhere in the depths of which the ' Shabby 

 Shanty' lay. On this lake were simply myriads of 



