THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
in size, 78 inches being the greatest length that I know of for a Lebanon 
bear; another, a female, measured 64 inches in length and 34 inches at 
the shoulder. 
These countries bordering the Levant do not hold much else of interest, 
except the ubiquitous wild pig, which are found in every jungle of suf- 
ficient size. The Jordan Valley abounds in them, while in the swamps and 
jungles at the south end of the Dead Sea they positively swarm in such 
numbers that the Arabs have to protect their crops by building thorn 
fences around them. Wild pig even wander out on to the barren lands, 
for I have seen them on the desert hills between Damascus and Palmyra, 
where they must be forced to travel great distances in search of food. 
The roe deer and the fallow deer are not likely to tempt the ordinary 
hunter, for they are exceedingly scarce. Anyone desirous of obtaining 
specimens in this, the extreme limit of the range, will have a difficult 
task. Roe deer are found as far south as the high land behind the promon- 
tory of Carmel on the Syrian coast, and they exist between this point and 
Tyre. It is a hill country covered with scrub and dwarf forest. Fallow deer 
used to be fairly numerous in the Giaour Dagh, behind Alexandretta, but 
a very severe winter some years ago killed off all the game, and it is said 
that none remain. 
To describe Arabia as a possible hunting ground seems absurd, for it 
is practically a closed country; but it holds two remarkable types of big 
game, one of which may reasonably become the object of an interesting 
journey and is a rare and beautiful trophy to possess; the other lives in 
a forbidden land, and so far has never been hunted by a European. 
I refer to the Oryx beatrix and the Arabian tahr. The former was 
unknown until quite recently, except for native report and “traded” 
specimens, while the latter retains its reputation of being unhunted by 
Europeans. 
In days gone by, no doubt, the oryx antelope ranged the deserts bor- 
dering Moab and Edom, but they are now restricted to the inner deserts 
of Arabia, in order to reach which is an undertaking of no small respon- 
sibility. The natural range of the oryx might be best described as ex- 
tending around the main sand areas of Arabia. That is to say, the great 
sand deserts, such as the Nafud in the north-west and the Roba-el-Khali 
in the south, are probably their true refuge, beyond which they roam 
as far as pastures and native hunters allow them. The sand belts are 
the pasture zones par excellence in Arabia. In its southern habitat the 
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