THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
be often seen but are quite unapproachable. I have come across them, 
too, in quite broken country in the hills of Tbaik to the west of the Nafud, 
where, by the way, there are also many ibex living in remarkably easy 
country. On one occasion I remember seeing ibex and gazelle whilst 
examining the tracks of oryx. 
This beautiful little antelope is the smallest of its race, an adult male 
standing only 40 inches at the shoulder and being about 60 inches from 
top of nose to root of tail. They are practically pure white except for the 
face and leg markings, and this colour is a very useful protective coloration 
for them. The record length of horn is 21\ inches long and came from 
the Tebuk country. 
It should be repeated here that the Arabian oryx is the only species 
of large antelope found in Arabia and the Syrian deserts. The Bubaline 
antelope ( Alcelaphus bubalinus) and the addax ( Addax nasomaculatus ), which 
used to be recorded as inhabiting these regions, do not exist. The oryx, 
the Sinaitic ibex, the dorcas gazelle, and a few rare ostriches are the only 
large fauna that range these desert frontiers of Arabia. 
The tahr, of the mountains of Oman, is another species peculiar to 
the Arabian peninsula, this strange wanderer from India ( Hemitragus 
jayakari) being one of the few remaining animals to have escaped the 
attention of European hunters. No one has either hunted or seen it in its 
natural haunts. This fact, of course, chiefly results from the unfriendly 
behaviour of the Arab tribes to foreigners, besides the continual state 
of unrest and quarrelling in which the mountaineers of Oman live. From 
all accounts the country the tahr inhabits covers a very small area. The 
main mountain area of Oman, namely, Jebel Akhdar, covers only about 
thirty miles in length by fourteen in breadth. There is, however, some 
very rugged country, for, in spite of its name, which gives the impres- 
sion of cultivation and luxuriant growth, the Akhdar range lifts a bare, 
conglomerate summit to a height of 10,000 feet. Thus there is a large area 
of crag and precipice above the cultivated area and the semi-tropical vege- 
tation of the valleys. Lieut. -Colonel S. B. Miles, who was the last traveller to 
penetrate into the interior of Oman (and that was fifty years ago), describes 
the Akhdar chain as having a gentle incline on the inland, desert side, 
with shallow, verdant, well -populated valleys; while its seaward face 
bears a wild aspect, falling abruptly in steep, precipitous crags, having 
valleys which are “ rugged torrent beds, and passing over a rough and 
stony passage, difficult to climb and but thinly studded with hamlets, as 
32 
