THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
may run to 50 inches. An average head for Sinai is about 35 inches. 
Those from Southern Arabia, distinguished as a variety (C. nubiana 
mengesi), run larger, 45 inches being a good average length for a pair of 
horns. 
To return to Damascus and the sport obtainable in the neighbourhood. 
Gazelle shooting may afford some interest and result in success if a 
thorough understanding of the local conditions is grasped. Gazelle of 
the Dorcas variety range over the whole eastern borderlands of Syria 
and Palestine. They claim the deserts and partially cultivated plains as 
their true habitat, but are prone to undertake certain migrations at set 
seasons. Thus, when the inner deserts dry up, the gazelle move west- 
wards and find themselves concentrating on to the settled lands; they 
come in contact with cultivation and even move up into the barren moun- 
tains in search of pasture. The hot season is, therefore, the time to look 
out for gazelle in close proximity to the cultivated areas, for the rest of 
the year they can wander where they will and are quite capable of looking 
after themselves. To the east of Damascus, in a short day’s ride, one 
reaches the limit of cultivation. Gently rolling, undulating desert spreads 
eastwards into infinity, and here at the height of summer a remarkable 
form of gazelle hunting may be enjoyed. Acquaintance with the native 
landowners will procure as many men as are necessary for driving large 
extents of country, while the hunters remain partially hidden by little 
mounds of stones placed at distances on the higher ground. The gazelle 
prefer the rolling country to the flat plain when disturbed; they are also 
very slow about moving over a sky-line. Generations of gazelle driving 
have taught the natives where to place their “ butts,” and when the gazelle 
are really “ in ” from the desert it is no great labour for mounted men to 
move them towards the position of the gunners. This method is, of course, 
practised all over Asia, wherever gazelle abound, but the fringe of the 
desert bordering on the oasis of Damascus is peculiarly attractive to the 
gazelle when food is scarce in the desert, while the rolling hill -country 
adds to the chances of manipulating a successful drive. 
Such is the skill of the natives in driving them that they habitually use 
large V-shaped enclosures made of stones into which to jostle the gazelle. 
This needs many men, and is only worth trying when the gazelle are 
really numerous, as they sometimes are when on migration. At the end 
of the V there are gaps in the wall, each of which opens on to a pit into 
which the gazelle fall. 
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