INTRODUCTION 
they are likely some day to become the goal of hunters with a short time 
at their disposal. The Caucasus constitutes a very fine and productive 
shooting country. It is very near, and although the best grounds are in 
the hands of private owners, yet permission to visit them is generally 
easily obtained. 
All over Asia Minor, Syria, and Armenia wild game is locally distri- 
buted, and it will be seen from further description that there are not 
only new heads to be got but a new country to try; and this is always an 
incentive to the true hunter, who is tired of following in the footsteps 
of his predecessors. Persia has a wonderful list of game animals for so 
destitute a country. It is distributed over a wide area, but the Elburz 
Mountains and the Kopet Dagh, in fact the northern borders of Persia, 
constitute the chief centre for sport. Two varieties of wild sheep, ibex and 
stag can be obtained here. 
In direct contrast to ancient Persia is Western China, one of Asia’s most 
remote and least-known hunting grounds. Where the Tibetan plateau 
falls off in rugged escarpments towards the plains of China, and in a few 
isolated ranges, such as the Pe-ling and Tsing-ling, there is hunting of a 
very special type to be experienced. A journey to these grounds necessitates 
a certain amount of forethought, but no hunter will be disappointed, for 
the stag, roe, bear, the strange takin, and serow are all peculiar varieties, 
indigenous to these regions. 
The only other hunting ground in Asia which claims special considera- 
tion is the Altai Mountains, both Mongolian and Russian. These form 
the home of one of the most highly-prized trophies the hunter can wish 
for— namely, the Ovis ammon — and although it cannot be said that he is 
likely to get much else, yet the possession of a few good specimens of that 
superb beast are considered to be worth going for. The sheep country in the 
Altai districts are easy to get to and afford some very fine stalking; there 
are also gazelle, bear, ibex and stag, but these, except the gazelle, rarely 
fall to the rifle of the hunter who is especially after sheep. 
Many miscellaneous regions in further Asia, haunted by beasts well 
worth specially organized expeditions, are to be recorded. For instance, 
there is a wild sheep of a peculiar variety which lives alone on isolated 
ranges in the far north of Siberia. This forms a journey by itself. There 
are reindeer and moose in the forests at the source of the Yenisei. Another 
type of wild sheep and many bears are to be found in Kamchatka. Man- 
churia is likely to become some day a prominent centre for hunters, for 
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