THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
London, should be taken. They will be found fairly accurate, on the whole, 
but those unacquainted with the Russian letters will find some difficulty in 
deciphering the names. 
As regards seasons, the sportsman will probably select the late summer, 
if in pursuit of mountain game, with the hopes of getting a stag in the 
early autumn, the roaring season, which generally begins about Sep- 
tember 20, being the best time, as they seldom come out in the open, 
and the forests are very thick. I once got a stag in the winter, but then 
it is very difficult to get about the country, and there is always the chance 
of being snowed in and having to abandon one’s belongings. 
The eastern end of the range is rather liable to be enveloped by a white 
mist in the month of September, and I have been prevented from hunting 
for several days from this cause; and yet the atmosphere is sometimes 
extraordinarily clear, so that I believe I have seen further in the Caucasus 
than anywhere else in the world. One wonderful half-hour just before 
sunset I shall never forget. I was near the watershed of the western end 
of the range, when every cloud suddenly vanished, and a line of snow 
peaks became clearly visible, which included Elbruz and others still 
further to the east, presenting a panorama which I have never seen equalled 
— a scene to make a man take off his hat, in awe and reverence, at the beauty 
of the universe. 
As a general rule, in a hill country one expects to find the largest heads 
on the highest mountain, just as the finest fruit is said to grow at the top 
of the tree; but when the altitudes exceed the medium, say 12,000 feet, this 
no longer holds good, and the very lofty peaks, though of great interest to 
the mountaineer, are not of much use to the hunter. It is on the lower 
slopes and shoulders of the really big mountains, a little above the timber 
line, that game should be looked for. 
The highest ground of the Caucasus lies in the centre of the range, 
between the great peaks of Elbruz and Kasbek, and between these two 
there are many mountains that will appeal to the Alpine climber. Elbruz, 
where tradition has it that Prometheus was chained to the rock, towers 
up some 18,400 feet, while Kasbek has an altitude of about 16,500 feet. 
It was in attempting the ascent of Koshtantau, which lies to the east of 
Elbruz, that W. F. Donkin and H. Fox with their two guides lost their 
lives in 1888. At first foul play was suspected, but it was too late to make 
any systematic search that season; however, a search party, led by Douglas 
Freshfield the following year, discovered their final bivouac, and though 
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