Sport in Crimea and Caucasus (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XIV. SHORES OF THE CASPIAN.--RETURN TO TIFLIS. Lenkoran--Abundance of game--Eryvool forest--Native fowlers--A hunting lodge--Swarming coverts--Wild boar--A paradise for sportsmen--Pigs at bay--' Old Shirka' and his quarry--A dying eagle--Caspian woodpeckers--Festive nights--Watching for a tiger--Forest life by night--The eagle-owl and his prey--End of a long vigil--The rainy season--The streets of Lenkoran--The return journey to Tiflis--Adventure at Adji Kabool--Experiences of post-travel--Bullying a station-master--Armenian Protestants--Russian telegraph service--In miserable plight--A spill over a precipice---Refitting our tarantasse--Argumentum ad hominem--An awkward predicament--Chasing a yemstchik--Renewed life at Tiflis--Great snow-fall--Running down antelope--The ' black death.' Lenkoran is almost surrounded by marshes, in which snipe and woodcock, with all manner of long-legged, long-necked strangers to a British eye, together with hundreds of the falcon tribe, disport themselves daily. Here my man and myself spent a day or two shooting specimens of the birds least known to us; but on the third day we took horse and rode to a larger lake, on which we embarked with our friend the German, intending to cross over to the woods which fringed the further side, somewhere in the depths of which the ' Shabby Shanty' lay. On this lake were simply myriads of water-hens. The whole surface seemed dark with them, the reeds alive with their ceaseless cries. The sale of these birds is quite a feature in the street life of Lenkoran. The bazaar is full of their carcasses; at every street corner you meet men hawking them for sale; every other peasant you see is carrying two or three home for the pot. On the lake are many flat-bottomed boats in which the fowl...