THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
detract from one’s pleasure or take away from the enjoyment of hunting. For 
instance, except for certain prohibited areas, such as Bokhara, the Pamirs, 
Afghanistan, Butan, Nepal, and a few regions closed by reason of the 
fanatical and truculent inhabitants, such as inner Arabia and the upper 
defiles of the Salween and Mekong, the whole of the continent is open to 
any hunter who cares to procure either a Turkish, a Russian or a Chinese 
passport. There are no restrictions, no licences, no “ limits.” The prices 
remain for the most part as they were, the people are not spoilt, and, 
although difficulties are sure to be met with just because it is not hackneyed, 
any real traveller will appreciate the change after following other well- 
trodden routes. Nearly every class of hunter is catered for, except the 
butcher, perhaps, and the man who only wishes to cover his walls with 
heads. The type of hunting it offers to one might almost be described as 
the height of fastidiousness. Such are its attractions, and so rare the beauty 
of some trophies to be obtained, that men have been known to make a 
thousand-mile journey to get one beast, and to be thankful if they were 
lucky enough to secure even the one. A 62 -inch Ovis ammon , a 58 -inch 
ibex, and a 53 -inch markhor have an individuality of their own: they 
are superb types of animal beauty, they are possessions — worthy to become 
heirlooms. It is not every one, even if he has money and a good head, who 
can gain possession of such trophies. Hunting in Asia does not offer 
opportunities to collectors of innumerable horns and skins, nor to the 
man who must let his rifle off every day. It offers hard hunting and really 
fine rewards to the man who is good enough, therefore I place it on a 
very high level. Yet Asia caters for nearly every type of hunter. A rapid 
review of the varieties of big game that the continent holds will show 
that this is true. 
From the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific, and from the Indian Ocean 
to the Arctic Coast, that is to say, taking in one broad sweep the whole 
of the Asiatic continent, there are, roughly, some ninety-five beasts which 
may be classed as quarry for the hunter, and I am not troubling about the 
very finely drawn differences between local varieties of one species. Of 
these there are some twenty -four species of deer, seventeen varieties of 
wild sheep, seven of ibex, four of markhor, and at least nine well-defined 
varieties of gazelle. Of purely Asiatic types are several races of takin and 
goral, innumerable varieties of serow, three varieties of tahr and a nilgai. 
There is a buffalo, a gaur, a yak, a moose, a reindeer, a chamois and a 
saiga, an antelope from Tibet, an Indian blackbuck, an elephant, and 
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