214 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



attention to the wound, and in a moment was out of sight. 

 These animals are extraordinarily strong, and specimens are 

 sometimes killed carrying the scars of very severe wounds from 

 which they have entirely recovered. Another bullet killed one 

 of the younger males, entering at the left shoulder and flattening 

 itself against the oS hind femur. A pair of startled kids 

 bounded up to the rock where we lay hid, and stood in astonish- 

 ment at the unfamiliar creatures they saw. To Levan they 

 represented meat, wool, and roubles, and I had some difficulty 

 in preventing murder from being committed. The dead Tur was 

 a heavy burden, and fche return journey with the carcass down 

 the unending talus was most exhausting, completely falsifying 

 the old saying, " Facilis descensus Averni." The labor and 

 the opus were worse on the way down. We were utterly unable 

 to carry the heavy body home, and so buried it in a pile of snow 

 by the side of the path. A few rags, used to clean the rifles, 

 were stuck on to the body, for the scent of the powder is a perfect 

 protection against prowling Foxes and other wild marauders. 

 The next evening I tasted my first shashylk of Tur, and a more 

 tender morsel could not be put before a king. 



The wool of the Tur is extremely soft, and highly prized by 

 the natives ; I was offered a bashlyk, or head-dress, of Tur wool 

 for 40 roubles, the price of a common cloth one being 2^ roubles ; 

 a few weeks later this bashlyk was actually sold for that price. 

 The Tur represents clothing, food, and' roubles to the ruthless 

 mountaineers, who shoot indiscriminately, regardless of sex or 

 season ; previously, thanks to their activity and extreme wari- 

 ness, the animals escaped annihilation, but the possession by the 

 mountaineers of modern firearms is rapidly thinning their 

 numbers. Dinnik has expressed the fear that within twenty 

 years these beautiful and interesting creatures will be on the 

 edge of extinction. 



At the highest point of our climb after the Tur, we could 

 hear the whistle of the "Mountain Turkey" {Tetraogallus 

 caucasicus, Pall.), but though we hunted for it and eagerly 

 scanned the rocks with a telescope, we were not lucky enough 

 to catch sight of one. 



The scenery above Kazbek past Kobi to the pass is fine ; 

 Mount Zion is particularly remarkable, terminating in a massive 



