THE NEAR EAST 
U NDER this title I include all Western Asia exclusive of 
Persia and Russian Caucasia, the region, in fact, composed 
of Turkey-in-Asia, independent Arabia and the Peninsula 
of Sinai. It is a varied country, for it can offer to the hunter 
a choice between the heavily forested ranges of the Black 
Sea littoral, the lovely mountain scenery of Anatolia and 
Armenia, the dead level plains of Mesopotamia, the deserts of Arabia and 
the rocky barrenness of Sinai. 
All of these are almost at our very doors. It is a five-days’ journey to 
Port Said on one side, it is three days to Constantinople on another, or 
the traveller can get on to the northern boundaries in four days via Russia. 
In spite of this, the region is scarcely known as regards the sport it 
supplies; indeed, the local conditions are so uncertain and attract so little 
attention, unless the traveller is on hunting bent, that in all the mass of 
literature on the various countries contained inside this area there is not 
much to be learnt of use to the would-be hunter in Nearer Asia. 
Asia Minor, in spite of the progress of railways, has not advanced 
much into public view during recent years. In fact, it would be inconsistent 
to talk of advance at all, for the political condition of the country has, if 
anything, become worse. Brigands, however, no longer maraud on the 
outskirts of Smyrna — the most important town of Asia Minor — while in 
the interior any animosity that exists is, in nearly every case, directed 
against the Turk and not the European. The whole of this region, therefore, 
is attractive to the traveller. He may meet with all the enjoyment of good 
hunting companions and be entertained with the most open-handed 
hospitality wherever he goes. Asia Minor has, at the present moment, 
reached the stage of being sufficiently opened up to an advantage and 
not a disadvantage. The railways have crept into the interior, but are 
only used by natives and a few European merchants. They lead to 
nowhere; there is not much traffic. It is very seldom that they come in the 
way of the traveller. This state of affairs will not last, for immediately 
the Taurus Mountains have been crossed, and the Anatolian railways 
connect with the Mesopotamian and Syrian lines, there will be much 
through traffic and, no doubt, many passengers. Then, from the Persian 
Gulf or the Mediterranean, anyone with a mind to it will be able to go by 
rail through the heart of Asia Minor to Smyrna or Constantinople; 
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