THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
railway journey of seventeen hours will take one to Aleppo or on to the 
Euphrates, whence one can drive to Diarbekr or Mosul, which is on the 
opposite side to Van, of the Kurdistan and Hakkiari hunting grounds. 
Thus the traveller can get close to his goal earlier in the year than by the 
northern approach, and he can also avoid the trouble generally experienced 
when travelling with arms through Russia. A week should be allowed 
for getting from Erivan to the town of Van, where outfit and caravan 
can be got together for further advance. Van is a good centre, for to the 
south of it lies one of the biggest mountain masses, a world of rugged 
highlands, characterized by rich pastures and intersected occasionally 
by rich alluvial plains where the towns are situated. South of Lake Van 
and between it and Lake Urmi is all good sporting country. It is “ big ” 
country and difficult, but the type of hunting is good and the trophies 
well worth taking trouble to procure. 
This mountain group may be considered the nucleus of the range of 
Capra hircus aegagrus; it being naturally about the centre of the area they 
extend over. It is also the biggest ground, and includes the highest and 
most well-protected fastnesses that they have. In days to come it will 
remain as the last resort of the wild goat, when all other smaller and 
lower localities have been swept clear of game. The difference between 
the physical features of this Alpine region and those of the rest of Asiatic 
Turkey is demonstrated to zoologists by the fact that the chamois is found 
here. The chamois is intolerant of heat and is confined to such mountain 
groups as the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Caucasus, this being the only 
locality where it is found in Asia. Perpetual snow, or, at any rate, rocky 
fastnesses and Alpine meadows, are necessary for the chamois, and 
these are a feature of the jumble of mountains that rise to the south 
and south-east of Lake Van. Also, strangely enough, the mouflon find 
suitable haunts amongst these high mountain masses, living in a very 
different type of country to what they do further west. 
When once Van is reached, the mountains are not so difficult to get 
into, for the traveller is already at an altitude of over 5,000 feet, and the 
snow must have melted off to a considerable extent to have allowed him 
to get there. Yet the ruggedness of the ranges and the scarcity of tracks 
force the traveller to choose the best season if he wishes to go far away 
from the main routes. Many valleys are so cut off from each other that 
the approaches from one to the other are only feasible for a few months in 
the summer. The ordinary difficulties of travel in wild mountain districts 
18 
