March /,o, toi^> 
L A X D .*v' ^^• A T F. R 
15 
Sport ' Round Salonika 
By F. G. Aflalo 
IN view of the absence of indecorous huny to attack 
General Sarrail displayed by the Austro-German- 
Bulgar armies, and pending such offensive as he 
may be planning for the melting of the snows, it 
looks as if the allied army of defence is in for a long spell 
of waiting, and those with a fancy for a little lishing or 
shooting may be glad to learn that their opportunities 
arc, so only they know where to look for them, nowise 
inferior to their leisure. 
Ail along that indented coast of Greece, both islands 
and mainland, is wonderful wildfowling ground, and the 
spring flights of swans, geese and ducks at the end of a 
liard March like the present cover acres of foreshore on 
the Gulf of Salonika, the Gulf of Volos and Butrinto 
Bay. The Katerina marshes, in full view Of Mount 
Olympus, are classic ground for the fowler, and wild 
swans, both mute and hooper, brent and grey geese, 
widgeon, teal, mallard and jiochard are to be shot by 
anyone who has thi> enterprise to punt among tlie 
creeks in early morning or on moonlight nights. 
Sonii' sort of dog, a retrie\'cr for choice, is neces.sary 
if any considerable proportion of the bag is to be picked 
up, as the natives are, ]>articularly before the air is 
warmer, reluctant to go into the water after birds. And 
here, having advised a civilised dog, let me add a word 
of caution touching the savage brutes belonging to the 
native shepherds. Shooting them, even in self-defence, 
is apt to lead to more trouble than can be squared by a 
few lepta or piastres, and all over the Balkans these sheep- 
dogs are a dangerous nuisance, and the only thing, if the 
stranger cannot gi\-e them a wide berth, is to keep them 
at bay till tiieir owners put in an appearance. This 
counsel of perfection applies to ordinary times. What 
relaxation of normal etiquette war conditions may have 
introduced, I know not. It may even be allowable to 
shoot these canine atrocities without so much as " by 
your leave." and without hearing any more of the matter. 
If so, shoot them, say I ; for there are plenty more, and 
they are nasty brutes, capable of giving a dirty and 
poisonous bite if they get home. 
Greece's Game Laws 
This possible, and e\en probable, modification of 
restrictions under existing conditions also applies to the 
game laws ordinarily in force. When I was last in (irecce, 
these were strict (though systematically disregarded by 
the natives) and not always intelligible. Thus the Direc- 
tor of Police of Athens and the Piraeus prescribed two 
regulations for Attica, according to which partridges 
were protected from February i6th to July 20th, and 
other game (meaning chiefly hares) from March 15th to 
the same date. There was no licence for either shooting 
or fishing, b>it in such territory (e.g., Epirus, etc.) whicli 
was then (but is not, nor ever again shall be) Turkish, all 
manner of difficulties were put in the sportsman's way, 
and these could be smoothed only by an incessant flow 
of baksheesh, the mainspring of the Turkish official's 
energy and vitality. 
The sure finds for wildfowl are the smaller bays and 
marshes, particularly those at Port Surpi, beyond Volos, 
and the classic shore of Marathon. There is also a great 
swamp near Na^'arino and another not far from the 
iieadland of Papas, in both of which wild duck and snipe, 
with a sprinkling of woodcock, used to be plentiful. 
Quail give an excellent shooting on the spring migra- 
tion, and several of the headlands round Salonika lie 
in their line of flight, while Port Lero, in Mitylene, is the 
best quail ground of all. Inrst come the landrails, the 
avant-coiircurs of the quail battalions, and once these 
are seen, or more probably heard, the quail will not be 
long coming. It is true that these little birds are netted 
in thousands on that coast, but there are plenty for the 
guns as well, and, with a good dog to work the birds, 
a day's quail-shooting early in April is by no means bad 
fun. There may be a few sand-grouse also, and these 
are best sought in early morning near the waterholes and 
brooks where they drink. The sand-grouse does not give 
a particularly difficult shot, but where these birds come 
over singly, and not in packs, they afford pretty practice 
and are excellent eating. For hares and rabbits, the 
islands are better ground than the mainland, and the 
noi'thern district of Andros is a little better than the 
rest. 
Big Game 
Of big game, little remains in this much-poached 
land. There arc still, for aught I know to the contrary, 
a few ibex on the rocky islet of Anti-Milos, but even if 
jiermission be given to shoot them they are somewhat 
inaccessible, and the visitor to the island runs the risk 
of being weather-bound during a spell of heavy seas, a 
consideration to anyone on short leave. There are also a 
few wild boar near Panagia, in Epirus, but they have 
been so persecuted by the natives that they hide all day 
in the dense reed-beds and have to be " dug out " on 
moonlight nights with tiie help of native beaters. As 
some of these are sure to tinn out armed with match- 
locks, the ])erformance entails almost as much danger as 
withstanding the much-advertised frontal attack on 
Salonika, with none of the glory. 
We are at that turn of the year in which the rod 
replaces the gun, and the fly-fisherman at Salonika finds 
himself on holy ground, for the first artificial fly ever 
described was used in a little stream flowing close to that 
city, the Thessalonica of St. Paul. It is to Aelian, a 
writer of the 3rd century, that we are indebted for this 
almost prehistoric account of the fly " Hippiuiis," which 
was dressed with scarlet wool and cock's feathers for 
catching iish in the river Astraeus, midway between 
Thessalonica and Berea. When last at Salonika, I tried 
hard to learn more of the river and its fish, but without 
success ; and it remains for some keen fisherman, French 
or British, to seek it out and throw a modern dry fly over 
its fish, which I strongly suspect to be sea-trout; Yet 
there are also trout, much poached but not wholly im- 
responsive, in most of the small streams of Epirus ; and 
in the Bay of Phalerum the sea angler with fine tackle, 
and a bag of live shrimps (carides) for bait, may catch 
bass and grey mullet. 
If the whole truth must be told, Salonika is not 
the best headquarters for either shooting or fishing in that 
region, but, on the assumption that a few days' leave 
should, in view of the leisurely enemy advance, not be 
difficult to get, I add a few concluding words on some 
other spots in the Balkan States in which, as either friends 
or enemies, our Mediterranean forces are ere long likely 
to find themselves. 
Quail and Woodcock 
Round Nish and Kruschevatx there is wonderful 
spring quail-shooting, and in parts of Montenegro (where, 
as Princess Elena of Montenegro, the Queen of Italv 
enjoyed famous sport in her girlhood) tiiere is to be founci 
some of the finest woodcock groimd in Europe. Close to 
Sofia —and who can say how soon the Anglo-French army 
of occupation may not find itself in that capital ? —there 
are woodcock, quail, duck and other game, and the Tuni 
Sviet marshes, though risky without a native guide, 
would give any sportsman the snipe-shooting of his life. 
Capercailzie, which arc shot with a small-bore rifle in 
the spring tok, each bird being stalked and shot as it 
sits in the tree tops, are plentiful in the woods round 
Samakov and Petrokhan, and the big game of Bulgaria 
include red deer, small bear and wild boar. Most of the 
mountain streams of that region are well stocked with 
small trout, and there are big lake-trout (which take only 
spoon or a Devon) in Scutari, Ochrida and other meres! 
Koumania, a State which a turn of the wheel may 
any day put on our visiting list, affords immense stags, 
wolf, bear, lynx, boar, roedeer, bustards, great and 
lesser, and wildfowl, with trout, salmon and coarse fish 
in the rivers of the Danubian system. There is no 
shooting licence in Roumania, but private leave is neces- 
sary, and a fishing permit must be obtained from the 
Minister of Domains. 
