THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
wild ass and lion are the only big game and none of these are often seen or 
procured. Gazelle may be met with as far west as the Cilician plains and 
extend over Mesopotamia to Arabia, all, I imagine, being of the Dorcas 
type, until the heart of the Arabian peninsula is reached. Wild ass, the 
same as the Persian type, namely, Equus hemionus hemippus , range over 
the plain between the Tigris and the Euphrates, but do not, as generally 
stated, extend into the Syrian Desert. The only locality which I know of 
as being a sure place to come in contact with these very elusive beasts 
is the Jebel Sinjar, between Deir on the Euphrates and Mosul on the Tigris. 
From the small villages in this desert range a keen hunter could get 
in contact with the Arabs, who range the steppes to the southward and who 
are sure at certain seasons — probably at the end of the dry, hot summer — 
to know of springs where they come to drink, or pastures which they are 
forced to use in those months which are most trying to desert beasts. In 
the same way only a very keen hunter would be likely to try for lion under 
such unfavourable circumstances as surround its haunt in the Mesopo- 
tamian jungles. Should a specimen of the Asiatic lion be desired, probably 
a systematic search in the forested ranges of the Persian frontier, such 
as the Zagros and Shiraz districts, would be more likely to prove suc- 
cessful. 
The rest of Western Asia is occupied by the more arid regions of Syria, 
Palestine and the Sinaitic and Arabian peninsulas, all of which are more 
or less closely related. Arabia can, for the present, be left to itself, for 
its sporting possibilities are very unreliable on account of the hostile 
character of its inhabitants, and most of it is a “ forbidden land.” 
Syria, Palestine and Sinai are, on the other hand, very easy of access 
and pleasant to travel in. They contain an almost phenomenal variation 
of climate and scenery — tropical jungles and snow-clad mountains, 
forests and deserts existing in close proximity, while the possibility of 
getting an interesting, though small, variety of trophies is a good enough 
incentive to put more sportsmen in the way of trying this little -known 
region. 
By entering at the ports of Haifa or Beirut and going to Damascus by 
railway, the hunter will reach a centre from which journeys can be made 
with the greatest ease to the haunts of two varieties of ibex, as well as 
the Syrian bear, the roe, the fallow deer, the Dorcas gazelle and — a trifle 
further afield — the Arabian oryx. I recommend Damascus as a starting - 
place, for there is much good shooting to be obtained close by; it is an 
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