no SPORT AND TRAVEL 



animals probably a good deal more. My acquaint- 

 ance with these great deer is not as extensive as I 

 could wish, and I have not yet discovered a country 

 in which they were anything but few and far between. 

 I first hunted them in the autumn of 1894 on the Ak 

 Dagh, or White Mountain ; but I only succeeded in 

 killing one stag, though I was camped high up in the 

 mountains in the midst of the ground they most fre- 

 quented for a month, and was continually looking for 

 them. This may seem very poor sport, and no doubt 

 it is so from a certain point of view, but the sports- 

 man who wants to kill a lot of beasts had better go to 

 some other part of the world than Asia Minor. In 

 that country there are grand prizes to be won cer- 

 tainly, but they are few and far between, and require a 

 lot of patience and perseverance in the getting. 



It was during my first visit to Asia Minor, in 1894, 

 that one morning, after a fortnight's unsuccessful hunt- 

 ing, I heard a stag roar apparently just beyond the top 

 of a wooded ridge, that rose from the ravine, in which 

 my native hunter and myself found ourselves. Roar 

 succeeded roar ; and presently we saw four hinds filing 

 slowly through the trees one behind the other on the 

 top of the ridge. They were soon followed by a stag, 

 whose great branching antlers were plainly visible. I 

 saw the hinds pass on and disappear; but the stag 

 never seemed to me to pass a certain cluster of trees, 

 and as he had ceased to roar, I thought he had prob- 

 ably halted and lain down, as the sun was already 



