THE NEAR EAST 
The big red deer, or maral ( Cervus elephas maral), is the only other 
trophy worth hunting in Western Anatolia, for although the game-list 
includes roe deer, fallow deer and wild boar, the former are too rare to 
promise success and the latter is so common that the hunter may come 
across him any day. The maral, however, is a very worthy beast, and its 
haunts in so accessible a district as this must attract attention; usually 
only remote and difficult regions provide room for so splendid a beast. 
This long -faced stag is not very widely distributed in the region under 
discussion, although it ranges far into Persia and the Caucasus. Probably 
many fine hunting-grounds exist in the mountains forming the Black Sea 
coastal ranges, where, so far as I know, no one has hunted them. Further 
south it is only on the forested ridges, which rise to a sufficiently high 
altitude to ensure plenty of water and food, that the stags are still to be 
found. The chief of these are the Ak and the Murad Dagh, remarkably 
small “ grounds ” situated close to the railway which now connects 
Smyrna with the far interior, to the north of the section between Ushak 
and Afium Karahissar, as well as in the Emir Dagh to the east of the 
latter town. 
These ranges rise to about 8,000 feet in altitude and are well clothed 
with forests of pine and juniper. In spite of the very small area they cover, 
good heads have been shot there; in fact the stags of this district, although 
few and far between, run equal to those of the huge preserves of the giant 
Caucasian ranges. The conditions of travel are the same as elsewhere in 
this hospitable country. Such close proximity to civilization grants to 
the hunter greater freedom from many of the usual worries that beset 
him in more out-of-the-way places. Mr Selous found it very hot and rather 
early for stag at the beginning of September; but Mr Buxton found them 
roaring on the 28th of that month, or, rather, their apology for a roar, 
which is described as being “ like the exaggerated yawn of a big, lusty 
man.” 
The maral is really an eastern race of red deer, which has its true home 
in the Caucasus and Northern Persia. From here it extends into the Crimea 
and Asia Minor. Apparently it keeps its size even to the limits of its range, 
for the three record heads have been obtained respectively in Western Asia 
Minor, the Caucasus and in the Crimea. It is a beast about whose range, 
so far as Asia Minor goes, little is known. There must be large grounds 
to the north of Yuzgat, Sivas and Erzingan, for wooded mountains and well- 
watered localities abound, and stag are known to be there. This is a good 
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