THE NEAR EAST 
excellent place to outfit and has an agreeable climate at all seasons, for 
it is always dry. Damascus is the true capital of Syria and Palestine; 
it is the terminus of several railways. One can travel northwards to the 
Euphrates or southwards across the Arabian frontier into the holy pro- 
vinces of the Hedjaz; one can also reach the coast at two points. The Haifa 
railway brings the Jordan Valley into close proximity, and the Beirut 
line allows the traveller to drop off at any point he chooses in the moun- 
tains of the Anti Lebanon. Thus it will be seen that the railways will 
carry the traveller to within an easy distance of his hunting ground, long, 
tedious treks with pack horses and camels being unnecessary. 
The winter climate of these regions is as near perfection as possible. 
For Sinai, the Dead Sea region, and the Palmyra ibex ranges, winter 
is the only season when hunting would be enjoyable instead of being 
labour. Summer, on the other hand, is the time to get at the bear, and it 
is the most favourable, although not the most pleasant, season for gazelle 
hunting. The summer months are excessively hot in the Sinaitic ranges 
and quite unbearable in the depths of the Dead Sea depression. It would 
be folly at that season to try to penetrate into the Arabian Desert in 
search of the oryx antelope, not only on account of the high temperature, 
but because of the scarcity of pasture and water. 
Ibex may be said to be the characteristic game of all the desert ranges 
over the whole of this south-western corner of Asia. They are found from 
the Euphrates to Sinai, and all over the Arabian Peninsula. Their pre- 
ference for the barren desert ranges seems unaccountable, but there is a 
good reason for it. The high mountains, such as the Lebanon, Anti Lebanon 
and the heights of Ajlun, are fertile enough to support a large population, 
hence the absence of wild game, the ibex being driven eastwards on to 
the desert frontier where they are undisturbed. Damascus may be said 
to be the dividing line between the range of the Asia Minor or Persian 
wild goat (C. hircus aegagrus ) and that of the Sinaitic ibex ( C . nubiana 
sinaitica). To be exact, the former comes as far south as about a day’s 
ride north-east of Damascus, and the latter range northwards as far as 
the upper end of the Dead Sea, there being a gap of about 130 miles in 
between them. 
The Persian wild goat, the hunting of which in Asia Minor and Kurdi- 
stan has already been described, here has very different haunts. In place 
of high ranges with well -pastured and forested flanks, they live on low 
hills which do not rise 500 feet above the desert, which only grow poor, 
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