BIG GAME HUNTING. The pursuit of large game prob ably shares with the lust for gold the credit for drawing the majority of explorers into the unknown, and there can be no doubt that such pursuit has always exercised the greatest fascination for mankind. In the past fifty years conditions have changed greatly and at the present time there would be comparatively few easily accessible big game fields left in the world had it not been for timely protection.
The actual methods of hunting depend on the type of country in which the game is found, and on the size and habits of the crea tures themselves. In open country which is free from any trees or bush it is obvious that game can be viewed from afar, the' actual distance depending on the contour of the ground. In these conditions a slow and stealthy approach is necessary before a shot can be obtained, use being made of every tuft of grass, rock, or hollow as a means of concealment and attention being paid to the direction of the wind. This is known as "stalking." In dense bush or scrub it is, however, impossible to see beyond a few yards. Any animal which is sighted will be well within shot when it is seen, so there is no need of a long approach to get within range. Game in these conditions is come upon suddenly, and the best chance of getting a shot is to walk slowly and cau tiously through the forest, ever on the alert. This form of hunting has been described by different names but none is so graphic or realistic as the American "still hunting." There are some animals which cannot be followed in this man ner. Such are mostly big beasts which herd together, as do ele phants. They leave well defined tracks, or spoor, in soft ground and even on hard ground a skilful hunter can follow their trail and eventually track them down. "Tracking" describes this work.
There are other animals which inhabit or else retire to patches of dense jungle so thick that it is impossible for any man to make a sufficiently silent advance to within shooting distance or view his quarry without first giving the alarm and frightening it away. Tracking and still hunting are out of the question and here the best chance of success is to drive the animal out into the open where a shot can be obtained, or at any rate along some path where the sportsman is waiting. This can only be done with the help of a number of men or else with a line of elephants as used in certain parts of India, and this method is universally known as "driving" or "beating." If, however, men or elephants are not available in circumstances such as these, the only course for the sportsman to adopt is to wait in hiding over some spot where the animal will probably pass or return. Such a place may be either a water hole, or a salt lick, or, in the case of beasts of prey, a half-eaten kill. This waiting method is known as "sitting up." It should, however, be stated that sitting up over water or a salt lick is not generally considered a sportsmanlike procedure and is prohibited by law in some countries.
In America there is yet another form of hunting which is com monly practised in pursuit of moose, but can be used with almost all species of deer; this is known as "calling." Calling consists in waiting in hiding and making a noise in imitation of the call of a cow or hind during the rutting season or else of the challenge of a bull or stag. In either case a male will answer and will gradually come right up to the sportsman believing him to be a possible mate or a probable antagonist. Every form of big game hunting is a modification of one of these principal methods; the next con sideration is that of the distribution of the game fields of the world, which can be dealt with best by continents.
Before 1914 there were two principal hunting fields for big game in Europe proper, Russia and Scandinavia. The conditions in the latter area which comprises the countries of Norway and Sweden do not differ materially from those prevailing before the war. The game to be found includes reindeer, red deer, European elk and brown bear (Ursus Arcturus). Of these the elk is probably the most important and in Norway is more widely distributed than any other species of big game, its habitat including all the larger continuous areas of coniferous forest. But it is a great wanderer and will on occasions invade districts where it has been previously unknown. This is especially the case with the elk which have in recent years been seen in parts of Finmark, where they have probably penetrated from the neighbouring districts of Finland. The best localities for elk have lately been the districts north of Trondhjem, and further south in Hedemarken, Kristians Amt, Storelvedan, Ytre Rendalen and Gausdal in Gudbrandsdalen. The best heads usually come from the more northern districts. The close season for elk varies, but at present they can be killed from Sept. Io to Sept. 20. Elk are hunted either by still hunting or with special hounds which run them to bay.
The European reindeer is of the barren-ground type, being smaller in the body than the woodland types of Canada and Alaska and carrying long, slender horns which show less palma tion than those of the American caribou. In former times reindeer were very widely distributed throughout the whole of Scandinavia, but now its range has become much more restricted and it only exists on the mountain plateaux above the timberline, and in sum mer prefers those mountains where there are plenty of "braes" or snowfields.
Red deer are not very widely distributed, existing only along the western coast of Norway from Buknfiord in the south to Nam dalen in the north, and in a few other scattered areas. The only localities where red deer are found in any numbers are the two islands of Tusteren and Hitteren. Bears still exist, but in such small numbers as almost to be negligible from a sporting point of view, although a certain number are killed by peasants annually.
Russia is at present an entirely unknown quantity. Without question much of the big game of central and southern Russia has been exterminated during and after the World War. In northern Russia, however, circumstances have been different. The rolling tundras and dense forests, mostly devoid of human habitation, have been little affected by the great upheaval, and it is more than possible that some of the best European hunting grounds of the future may lie in northern Russia and Siberia. From Scandinavia to the eastern coast of Siberia, elk and reindeer are to be found. Further north in the tundras reindeer only are to be found. These tundras consist of open, undulating country covered with heather and lichens, interspersed with bogs, while here and there are to be seen scattered clumps of silver birch: a country, in fact, which is very like some of the northern deer forests of Scotland. Rein deer exist everywhere on these tundras and they are particularly common in the Kola and Yalmal peninsulas and the island of No vaya Zemlya.
Other species of game to be found are lynx and bear, both of which are very plentiful, while wolves are ubiquitous and follow the elk. These wolves, it should be noted, are the big grey timber wolves. Polar bears are fairly common in the northern parts of Novaya Zemlya and walrus may sometimes be encountered on the ice floes. The White Straits are frozen from Christmas to May, while the whole of the Arctic Ocean and Kara Sea are closed with ice from November to May, and are liable to further blocks from ice during periods of northerly winds even later on in the spring.
Central Europe suffered a similar fate to that of central and southern Russia, and the reserved forests which formerly held magnificent red deer, brown bear and roe buck have been sadly depleted of game. In the Carpathians game still exists in con siderable numbers. Chamois and red deer both run large in these mountains and it is probable that better heads are to be found here than anywhere else in Europe. Similarly Tirol has been less af fected than the lower levels. Chamois are to be found in the Alps in fair numbers, but it must be remembered that all the best districts are preserved. In Spain proper the conditions are the same, and the travelling sportsman would stand no chance of sport without influential friends or exceptional letters of introduc tion. The big game of Spain are brown bear, red deer, chamois and Spanish ibex. Bear are very scarce and are confined almost entirely to the mountains of the north, the Pyrenees and Canta brian mountains. Red deer are somewhat local but they exist in the forests of the Sierra Morena and Andalusia. Although not plentiful, chamois or "Izard" exist in the Pyrenees and Canta brian mountains. They are somewhat smaller than the chamois of Tirol, both in size of bodies and heads. The Spanish ibex, how ever, is a magnificent creature but is very strictly preserved. For merly it used to be found in almost all the mountains of Spain from the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean, but it was so heavily hunted and shot that it became nearly extinct. The most rigid preservation was then introduced with the pleasing result that this grand animal has increased considerably. In the Pyrenees it is found only in one valley, the Val d'Arazas, which is the pri vate property of H.M. the King of Spain and is regarded as a sort of national park. The horns of the Spanish ibex are quite unlike those of any other of the goat tribe, more resembling those of the East Caucasian Tur, than any other.
The chamois of the Pyrenees is one of the only two specimens of European big game which can give the sportsman who is un able to afford the rent of a special shoot, or forest, much chance; the quarry is one which will exercise all his stalking skill and as much hard work as the veriest glutton for exercise can desire. With the exception of the Val d'Arazas, to which reference has already been made, the shooting of the Pyrenees is open to the public for all practical purposes, but a passport both for France and Spain must be obtained. Chamois are by no means common although they are to be found in certain localities.
The other European animal which offers a chance of big game hunting to the sportsman of moderate means is the Sardinian Moufflon. This handsome wild sheep also exists in Corsica, where it had become almost extinct in 1914, but happily it increased dur ing the war and at present it is strictly preserved by the French Government. In Sardinia moufflon shooting is legally open only for one month of the year, normally September, but the game laws are disregarded by the local inhabitants and it would appear to be but a matter of time before the Sardinian mouifion is ex tinct. These wild sheep at present inhabit the higher mountains, especially the Gennargentu mountains, and good heads may still be obtained although they are becoming more scarce every year.
Useful books dealing with big game hunting in Europe are: Abel Chapman, Wild Spain and Wild Norway; E. N. Buxton, Short Stalks; and H. P. Highton, Shooting Trips in Europe and Algeria.
Asia offers greater variations both in climate,and physical fea tures than any other continent and although its big game may not be quite so numerous either in species or actual numbers as those of Africa it undoubtedly offers attractions to the big game hunter with an exploring turn of mind which can be equalled in no other part of the world. Beginning in the west moufflon, sim ilar to the Sardinian species but larger, are to be found in the mountains of Asia Minor, while the Caucasus still provides some of the most difficult yet splendid sport in the world. In the higher ranges there is that fine wild goat, the West Caucasian tur, which in the east gives way to the East Caucasian tur, an animal which carries horns very similar to the Himalayan bur rhel, but which has a short beard and is a true goat with all the characteristic smell of that species. In the wooded valleys may be found the maral, a magnificent specimen of the red deer species almost as large as the American wapiti, while it is just possible that the aurochs is not yet extinct. Then the pasang, or Persian wild goat (Capra axgagrus), extends right through the Caucasus from the mountains of Asia Minor, and onwards throughout the ranges of northern Persia down to Baluchistan and the hills on the Indian frontier In Sind, where it is known as the Sind ibex.
Persia itself is full of opportunities and is as yet little known from the big game hunter's point of view. Tiger exist in the low lying forests to the south of the Caspian sea and probably fur ther east as well, while the maral of the Caucasus extends well into Persia. The mountain ranges hold at least one variety of wild sheep which is very similar to the Indian oorial, but slightly larger in body and with very much finer heads, and the plains carry several varieties of gazelle. Leopard are common in many parts. Mesopotamia and Palestine offer few attractions, although gazelle are found in the deserts of the former, but Arabia is a terra incognita. A species of ibex inhabits the mountains of the Sinaitic peninsula, and possibly extends further inland, while speci mens of the Arabian oryx can be obtained from Aden. The Ara bian thar inhabits the mountains of Oman and the desert holds gazelle.
Returning to Persia it will be seen that the mountain ranges of this country run eastwards through Afghanistan to India where they increase in height and form the range known as the Hindu Kush. This system extends again to the north and east where it merges into the Karakorum, the range in which is K2, the second highest mountain in the world, and which continues eastward un til it unites with the Kuen Lun Range, that great northern but tress of the Tibetan plateau. North of the Hindu Kush lie the Pamirs, and north of these and parallel to the vast chain of mountain systems already mentioned are the Tian Shan moun tains. Yet further north and still parallel are the Altai mountains, and north of these are the Siberian steppes. It will accordingly be seen that there are three huge principal mountain systems of Central Asia, all running approximately east and west, with lower lying levels in between them, although in the centre the wide extent of the Pamir plateau forms a mighty backbone from which the other systems extend.
The whole of this vast area is a wonderful hunting ground. Wild sheep are to be found in the higher ranges which carry heads with wide sweeping horns. Of these the Ovis poli of the Pamirs is probably the best known, and this species certainly carries the longest horns, but they are not so massive as those of the Ovis karelini of the Tian Shan, or of the Ovis ammon of the Altai, which has the most massive horns of all. The range of these central Asiatic wild sheep is large, extending right through Man churia to Kamchatka, and throughout the mountains and hills of Manchuria and northern China different species and sub-spe cies exist. Southwards, on the plateau of Tibet, they are repre sented by the Ovis ammon hodgsoni, the "ammon" of the Indian sportsman and the "nyan" of the Tibetans. Ibex range from the northern bank of the river Sutlej through the Himalayas, Kara korum and Pamirs, to the Tian Shan, the heads getting bigger as one travels north, the biggest heads of all being found in the Tian Shan.
China itself is little known. In the mountains of the north wild sheep are found, and it is certain that tiger extend throughout the forests of eastern China from Manchuria to the extreme south. There are, in fact, strong grounds for belief that Man churia is the real home of the tiger which has extended its range southwards in comparatively recent times. At birth tiger cubs are woolly, indicating a natural protection against cold, and al though tigers are found in the hottest jungles of India they dis like heat and their pads will blister when they are forced across open ground in the hot weather. The tiger is common throughout China and extends throughout Cochin China and Siam to Burma, India, the Malay States and Sumatra. In south-east China the forests and cultivation give way to higher altitudes which cul minate finally in a mountain range which forms the eastern border of the Tibetan massif. Here are to be found typical game of southern Tibet, the burrhel and the uncouth takin. Apart from tiger Cochin China holds leopard and is probably the eastern out post of the Asiatic elephant, gaur and rhinoceros. These animals all exist in Siam and here, too, may be found the curious Schom berg's deer with its widely spreading and many pointed antlers, and a small representative of the Indian sambhur. This grand deer seems to have India as its real home, for it is in this country that it attains to the biggest size both of body and horn, but it has a very wide habitat, being found throughout the Malay Penin sula, Sumatra, Java and Borneo as well as in Ceylon.
Between the Kuen Lun Mountains on the north and Burma, Siam and Cochin China on the south lies the Tibetan plateau, the highest and most extensive plateau in the world. Only one animal seems to be almost ubiquitous throughout Tibet, and that is the burrhel, or blue wild sheep of the Himalayas, but whose real home is undoubtedly Tibet ; it is regarded by some natural ists as the connecting link between the sheep and goats. Vast herds of Tibetan antelope roam over the Chang Tang, the desert of northern Tibet which has a mean altitude of nearly i 7,000 feet, and here, too, are to be found herds of wild yak. Further south the Ovis ammon hodgsoni and Tibetan gazelle may be obtained, while in the lower districts to the east of Lhasa there are forests which hold Thorold's deer, a large deer very few specimens of which have ever been obtained by European sportsmen. There is also a small bluish bear of Tibet, but very little is known of its habitat. Wolves are numerous, and in the west, bordering on the Himalayas, the snow leopard and Tibetan lynx exist but are rarely encountered.
The Himalayas, the greatest mountain system in the world, form a natural barrier between the lofty desolation of Tibet and the low lying fertile plains of India. The Himalayas themselves provide magnificent stalking, the quarry being, in addition to those Tibetan animals already mentioned, ibex, thar, markhor and shapoo (a wild sheep identical with the oorial), while other game animals are goral, serow and two species of bear, one black and one brown, which latter exists only in the higher ranges near the snow line and is a variety of the brown bear of Europe. In the western Himalayas, in Kashmir territory, may be obtained specimens of the Kashmir stag, a deer very similar to, but larger than, the red deer of Scotland, while in the east there is an isolated "pocket" of territory in the Chumbi valley which is the home of a still larger stag, the Shou.
India proper contains the oldest and best known hunting grounds of all. Sportsmen had been accustomed to shooting tigers long before any big game hunter had set foot in Africa. And on the whole conditions have changed little during the past hundred years. The game fields of old are game fields yet : they have shrunk in size and the numbers of animals they hold : that is all. There are no vast areas where game formally teemed and which are now denuded of animal life, and in this respect India is different from other countries. The explanation lies in the fact that the climate renders it an impossible country for the white man to colonise and so the denizens of the Indian jungles have had the chance of existing without the menace of the advance of settlers as has been the case in America and many parts of Af rica. The principal game fields are the Terai, a huge belt of tropical jungle which runs along the foot of the Himalayas from the river Jumna to Assam and which holds tiger, elephant, rhinoc eros, sloth and black Himalayan bear, sambhur, cheetah, swamp deer and other smaller varieties; the jungles of Central India and the Central Provinces in which tiger, gaur (commonly called the "bison"), sambhur and sloth bear are the, most important big game ; the damp and intensely thick jungles of southern India, including the Mysore plateau, where elephant, gaur and tiger are abundant, and in the Nilgiri Hills there is a species of wild goat locally known as the "ibex" which is really a variety of tahr. Assam and the Sunderbands, the semi-flooded delta of the Ganges, are the home of the buffalo, which was also common at one time in the Central Provinces, but which is now almost extinct in that district, and Burma is the best ground for elephant, gaur and tsine, an animal akin to the gaur. Leopard abound in all the areas mentioned while the Indian antelope, or black buck, and gazelle exist in large numbers all over the plains, especially in the deserts of Bikanir and the Punjab.
Probably the best sport is to be obtained in the dependent In dian States, but permission to shoot in these is only gained by special invitation and the visiting sportsman would stand no chance of getting such without exceptional influence. All the jungles of British India proper are controlled by the Imperial Forest Service of India and are divided up into blocks, which are let out to sportsmen for a limited period. The total number of animals which can be killed in each block per annum is strictly limited and the blocks are allotted to applicants according to priority of asking. In India there are no firms or individuals who make a business of conducting visiting sportsmen on an extended hunting tour as is the case in America or East Africa, and big game hunters who visit India must be prepared to make their own arrangements and take their chance with those British offi cers of the army and different civilian services who spend the greater part of their lives in administering the land. The big game of Ceylon is very similar to that of India except that tiger do not exist in the island and all the horned or antlered game carry very much smaller heads, while the elephants are almost invariably tuskless. Sumatra probably offers the wealthy hunter better opportunities for obtaining specimens of Asiatic elephant, gaur, rhinoceros and possibly tiger, than does India proper. A large launch is essential and such can be hired locally.
Many books have been published dealing with big game hunting in Asia but the following should provide the information necessary: R. L. Kennion, By Mountain Lake and Stream (Persia) ; T. and K. Roosevelt, East of the Sun and West of the Moon (Central Asia) ; G. Burrard, Big Game Hunting in the Himalayas and Tibet; R. L. Kennion, Sport and Life in the Further Himalayas; A. A. Dunbar Brander, The Wild Animals of Central India; A. E. Stewart, Tiger and other Game; J. W. Best, Shikar Notes (Central Provinces of India) ; G. P. Sanderson, Thirteen Years among the Wild Beasts of India (Southern India) ; Fletcher, Sport in the Nilgiris and Wynaad, vol. ii. of Big Game Hunting of the Badminton Library ; The Indian Field Shikar Book; • G. P. Evans, Big Game Hunting in Upper Burma; Forsyth, Highlands of Central India; H. G. C. Swayne, Through the Highlands of Siberia; E. Demidoff, A shooting Trip to Kamchatka.
Although the game fields of the African continent were the last to be discovered they have suffered more than those of any other part of the world, except some parts of North America, from the attacks of the white man. Such attacks, however, have not been delivered by the man who shot for sport, and if sport alone had been the object of pursuit it is doubtful whether the numbers of game would have decreased very materially. In South Africa the Dutch settlers must take the responsibility for the complete of such species as the quagga and the general extermination of game from the greater part of the country which lies to the south of the Limpopo. These settlers shot for the sake of meat and hides, and wherever commercialism enters into the question the fate of wild game is sealed. Similarly the early elephant hunters had much for which to answer. But shooting alone has not been responsible for the elimination of big game from huge areas of Africa. Colonization by different nationalities of European settlers drove the wild animals into unsuitable country, just as it did in America, and it is this advance of civilisation which is really the most serious menace to the fauna of Africa. There are, however, gigantic tracts of country quite unsuitable for colonization by white settlers and in such the game should flourish for many years to come, protected as it now is by efficient game laws in most parts of the continent.
In the first place it must be realized that the real wealth of Africa as far as big game is concerned lies in its wonderful vari ety of antelopes and gazelles. There are over 6o different species. The next interesting point is that no specimen of the deer tribe seems to be indigenous in the whole of Africa. It is true that a few red deer do exist in northern Africa in the neighbourhood of Tunis, but it is probable that these were either imported or else are the descendants of some which migrated from Spain before the formation of the Straits of Gibraltar. Africa shares with Asia the boast of rhinoceros and elephant, but both the African varieties of rhinoceros (black and white) are as different from any variety of Asiatic rhinoceros as is the African elephant from the Indian. The giraffe and okapi are quite distinctive and peculiar to Africa, while the African buffalo, with all its varieties, is as distinctive as is the African elephant. The leopard is distributed throughout the continent and is similar to the Asiatic species although an experienced sportsman can usually detect the difference in the skins. The lion, extinct in Mesopotamia, Palestine and Arabia, and driven into one small corner of India, reigns supreme among the wild creatures throughout the whole of Africa from Morocco in the north to Zululand in the south, and from Somaliland in the east to the Gold Coast in the West.
The most accessible district of all is the Sudan which offers a great variety of hunting grounds. On the east the Red Sea Hills hold ibex, while the deserts of Kordofan and Dongola provide gazelles, oryx and the elusive addax, as well as Barbary sheep in the barren hills. But the chief hunting grounds of the Sudan lie in the south up the Blue and White Niles. There is a big game reserve in the valley of the Blue Nile, but plenty of excellent ground exists, although the upper courses of the White Nile, notably the Bahr-el-Ghazal, will probably attract the collector of rare varieties as here may be obtained specimens of the giant eland (Lord Derby's) and the white rhinoceros, an animal which was once common in South Africa but is now unknown except in the southern Sudan, Northern Congo and Uganda. Elephants and buffalo are both common but the tusks of the former and horns of the latter are not big in the Sudan.
Just as the Sudan is the nearest of the African big game fields, so Kenya is the most popular. Game may be seen in numbers to be encountered nowhere else in Africa in spite of the fact that the herds are not nearly so large or numerous as they were. Every kind of country and climate is met with in Kenya and each has its own fauna. Starting from the Indian Ocean the first district is the coast belt, where game is plentiful but not so easily obtained as in other parts. Porters are the best form of transport and the bag should include elephant, buffalo, rhino, eland, lion, bushbuck and some of the smaller antelopes. The next and by far the most popular district is the highlands which consist of great rolling plains interspersed with patches of bush and situated at an eleva tion of from 4,500 to 7,000f t., in places reaching 9,000f t. A great part of this area has been settled by Europeans but nearly i i,000, 00o acres are permanently reserved for the Masai tribe. The eastern half of this area is a game reserve but the western half is the most popular hunting ground, and here may be obtained specimens of almost every variety • of East African game. But a very large portion of Kenya is taken up by desert which lies to the north of the Highlands. The game of this desert is confined to oryx, Grevy's zebra, dikdik and Grant's gazelle, which gives place to Sommerring's gazelle in Jubaland.
The real tropical African country is not found much in Kenya but covers an extensive part of Tanganyika, where there is nearly as much possibility of varied sport as in Kenya. Here one comes to the land of the sable antelope, which extends right down through Nyasaland, Northern and Southern Rhodesia to the frontiers of the Kalahari, but for really big sable antelope Angola is the best district. Rhodesia, both north and south, is a fine hunting ground and offers a chance of big kudu and roan antelope. Portuguese East Africa is heavily poached, but in the big swamps round the mouth of the Zambesi buffalo roam in great herds. South Africa has now little to show in the way of big game, although Zululand is probably still the best chance for nyala and the Kalahari Desert is the only place where gemsbuck exists.
The West Coast holds plenty of game but not nearly in such profusion as the East, and this fact combined with the doubtful climate prevent its attracting sportsmen in numbers. Further the heads of animals run smaller as a rule than they do in the east, while elephants carry lighter tusks. The West African buffalo, or bush cow, is, however, a distinctive type which is found nowhere else. The immense tracts of the French and Belgian Congo are seldom visited by sportsmen other than professional elephant hunters, but bordering on the eastern boundary of the Belgian Congo lies Uganda which is the district, par excellence for ele phant and buffalo, as well as that shy and retiring water antelope, the situtanga. To the north of the Congo extends the great Sahara Desert, the home of gazelles, but in the hills of Morocco and Algiers, the sportsman who has not time for a long journey has a chance of Barbary sheep.
Useful books of reference dealing with African big game hunting include H. C. Maydon, Simen, its Heights and Abysses (Abyssinia) ; H. G. C. Swayne, Seventeen Trips through Somaliland; W. D. M. Bell, Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter; Abel Chapman, Savage Sudan; W. B. Cotton, Sport in the Eastern Sudan; Sir Samuel Baker, Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia (Blue Nile) ; A. B. Percival, A Game Ranger's Notebook; F. C. Selous, A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa, Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia; H. A. Bryden, Kloof and Karroo; P. H. G. Powell Cotton, Travel and Adventure in the Congo; J. C. B. Statham, Through Angola, The South and East African Year Book and Guide.
Just as Africa is the home of the antelopes so North America may be described as the home of the deer. The moose, wapiti (known as "elk"), caribou (both woodland and barren ground varieties), mule deer, white tail and black tail being among the varieties to be found. Other game animals are the grizzly and black bears, several varieties of big horn sheep, Rocky Mountain goat and in the extreme north polar bear. The pronghorn ante lope which is a peculiarly interesting animal in that it forms the connecting link between the deer and antelope (having regular horns, as opposed to antlers, which it sheds annually) was at one time extraordinarily common and roamed the prairies in great herds, but it is now confined to a few districts in the far ther west and to that great national game reserve, the Yellow stone park. Here also may be seen the remnants of the stupendous herds of bison, or American "buffalo", which formerly darkened the prairie and which suffered almost complete extinction.
At the beginning of the 2oth century Newfoundland provided the finest caribou shooting to be obtained, the heads of the woodland variety being remarkable for their size and number of points. But they were slaughtered during their annual migrations to such an extent that they were threatened with extinction and at present killing of caribou in Newfoundland is prohibited. The chief game fields of North America now consist of New Bruns wick, where moose are fairly plentiful but little else, and the country from the east of the Rocky mountains to the Pacific coast right up into Alaska. Here all the varieties of North Ameri can big game may be obtained. Wapiti do not range much to the north of British Columbia, but moose are especially plentiful, the biggest heads coming from Alaska, while there is an excep tionally large variety of grizzly bear which inhabits Kodiak Island off Alaska. The wild sheep are akin to the various Asiatic varieties found in Mongolia and Kamchatka.
Useful books in North American big game hunting are: C. R. E. Radclyffe, Big Game Shooting in Alaska; and Bryan Williams, Game Trails in British Columbia.
South America has little in the way of attractions to the big game hunter, the jaguar being the only animal worthy of pursuit, and this leaves Australia as the only continent which has not been considered. The only indigenous big game of Australia is the kangaroo which is scarcely an animal for the sportsman's rifle, but in the Northern Territories there are herds of buffalo, the descendants of domesticated animals which escaped into the bush and have been completely wild for many generations. Some of these bulls carry quite good heads.
New Zealand, however, is on a very different footing and is a country of peculiar interest in that all its game has been imported. These experiments in importation have been most successful with the result that for many years magnificent red deer heads have been obtained, and at the present time the following animals seem to have become acclimatised: red deer; American moose and wapiti; chamois; Indian sambhur, cheetah, thar and burrhel; mule deer. It is highly probable, therefore, that in a few years' time New Zealand will be able to offer as fine a variety of good heads as any other country of the same size in the world.
See T. E. Donne, Red Deer Stalking in New Zealand; and The Game Animals of New Zeakind.
General Information.—One of the most important steps in the planning of an expedition after big game is to ascertain the best time of year for hunting. Quite apart from the question of health, should the sportsman visit the country at an unfavourable season he may stand but a small chance of sport because some peculiar local conditions, such as high grass, may prevent him from seeing anything. Another factor is water: as a rule this is fairly plentiful in any district where game exists in abundance, but at some seasons of the year it may be very scarce, and only exist in certain localities. Information on these points will always be given gladly by the Game Department of the country in which it is proposed to hunt, and the following further information should also be obtained: (I) what stores and equipment can be obtained locally; (2) what means of transport is generally used between the proposed base and the actual shooting grounds; (3) whether this transport is easily obtained, and how; (4) whether any trackers or native hunters are available. Good maps of the country are another essential item.
The question of the most suitable battery is largely a matter of personal preference built up on experience, but generally speaking the best weapon for stalking is a rifle of the modern "magnum" small bore type which develops a very high muzzle velocity and so gives a flat trajectory, thus eliminating the difficulties of judging distance. It is always a mistake, however, to select a rifle which does not fire a fairly heavy bullet, as very light bullets are too liable merely to wound, and iso grains is a fairly safe minimum weight. For dangerous game which is shot at close quarters the tyro will be well advised to use a heavy double cordite rifle of a calibre of about .47o. There are many experienced hunters who use nothing but small bores, but the beginner can adopt such methods when he has gained experience for himself.
Useful books dealing with big game hunting generally are: G. Burrard, Notes on Sporting Rifles; Rowland Ward, Records of Big Game; Sir S. Baker, Wild Beasts and their Ways; Badminton Library Big Game (Two Volumes) ; Rowland Ward, The Sportsman's Hand book. (G. By.)