Evening star., 1898-03-12
A Bearskin Thirteen and a Half Feet
Long.
WHERE THE WORLD'S Big GAMENOWE
Liberia Offers Untried Fields to
Tempt the Sportsman.
SHOOTING THE WILD BOAT



trophies. rot series of the same kind
Consequently he is not content with a
whole seasons ''still hunting in the Cana
dian forest. when the first light snow has
falien, end moose and cariboo can he fol-
lowed with surroundings and equipment
unchanged since the days Of Montcaln
tecause he can only" get moose and cart
Doo ana biack-tailed deer or mule deer
Inc climate and surroundings are almost
Perfect; and he can have this sport mixed
Hi'h canoeing. rough fishiug and pieniy
oI small game shooting when he likes
i bu' ~hat ne desires is, If in North Amer
ica varied and striking collection of
rides and horns. skins of 1he grizzly hear
ma black bear. horns OF the wapiti Inoos,,
cariboo. black-tailed deer Rocky mountain
goat and big-horn sheep and for this be
must go further afi.ld TO th. rnapnidc.Dt
mountain forests and lakes Of North
British Columbia. Ii does no. matter
whether he seeks his sport there or in
south Africa. i'm Hhama's country in
Mashonaland in the Ipper Zamlesi or I'm
india In any of these fields ne can amass
those magnificent sets of trophies which
are now seeh in SO many sportsmens
hCmes. and form. merely in transit between
the packing case and the country house
permanent collection always changing
tut never growing less in the establish
ments OF Mr.; Rowland Ward and one or
two other first-class iaxidermists and
mounters OF skins and horns.
Envy of Hunters.
The size and splendor of some OF these
trophies surpass anything seen in mu-
seums, except in that of Mr.. Walter Roths-
child at Tring. The mere bulk Of some OF
the animals passes belief and the magni!i-
cerce of the furs and horns makes the
average Englishman wildly covetous TO OBJ
tain something himself which shall match
them.
As mere instances of the size OF the
trophies. may take for example the
skin of the grizzly bear. which according
to Mr.. j. &. Tolman. measured thirteen feet
and half from nose to the end of the
spine, or the gigantic African elephants
head at Tring. with tusks nine feet long.
There Is, of course, another side to this
quest for trophies; the writer has seen at
one of the great taxidermists the newly
tanned and bullet-pierced skin OF a lion
spread out for inspection before the broiE@r
of the man whom il had killed the instant
after ii received its death wound. But
fatal accidents are Increasingly rare in
modern big game shooting. The rifles are
accurate, not too heavy. and frighifully
destructive; and very many of the noted
big game hunters are marvellous shots.
7 hose who doubt il should watch the shoot
ing of such great hunters as Mr.. Llttledale
or Sir f. G.. Loder when firing double shots
at the running deer at Bisley. and put
ting, not once. but twice, thrice, or four
times two bullets. right and left, into
moving target no larger than saucer.
New Regions.
Fortunately for the big game hunter
there are new regions opening out for him
even now. There is every reason to be-
lieve that one of these will offer almost
the finest sport and of tie most satisfac-
tory kind yet found, except perhaps in the
days of the early lion hunters in South
Africa. The scene is the valley OF We
Upper Amcor, and its great tributary the
Ussurl.
On the former. bear. boar, and the mag
nificent maral stag abound. in some of the
most beautiful scenery, and one OF the
best climates in the world. The Lower
Amoor is "feverish" except in winter; but
the valley Of the Ussuri river, which joins
the Amoor at the poiEt where the latter
turns due north, and forms the boundary
between Chinese Manchuria and the Rus
sian coast province. holds the finest beast
of prey in the world, the northern or 81
berian tiger No one quite knows 10 Nhat
dimensions the Siberian tiger will not grow
One owned by Mr. Hagenbeck of Hamburg
was a far larger animal than he or any
other had ever seen either alive or rep
resented by its skin. The coat is immense
ly long in winter of a rich dark orange,
with an underground of fur, and makes
an Incompatible trophy.
Tiger. I'm Plenty.
Both these northern tigers and bears
were recently so plentiful on the Ussuri
that the Russian government offered
large reward for their destruction, and
gave every encouragement to the officers
of the East Siberian army to go and hunt
there. But Russian officers have not that
passion for sport which seems inbred In
Englishmen abroad. and recent accounts
state that the ravages made among the
cattle of the new Russian settlers are still
a most serious drawback to colonization.
The wild boars Of the Cssuri are also very
fine animals. There are two of these at
the Trirg Museum. but they do not equal
the dimensions of the huge European boar
from the Carpathians. recently exhibited
at the International Fur Store. This Eu-
ropean boar, shot within a few days by
rail from London. weighed six hundred and
twenty pounds, beating the record Of the
chestnut-fed boars Of the Caucasus. Its
bristles were so wiry, long and thick that
they looked like piece of rough heather
thatching.
Before the East Siberian hunting field
is developed another will probably be once
more open to the British big game hunter.
This is the Kassala district and the valley
of the Atbara river, which before its oc-
cupation by the Dervishes was absolutely
the finest sporting ground left in Africa.
1t was the land of the hunting Arabs"
very healthy. abounding I'm water and
cover and the home par excellence of tho
black rhinoceros, the lion and smaller
African carnivora of many species. large
antelope. and in places of the elephant
and giraffe.
Increase of Game.
1t is believed that an immense increase
of wild animals has recently taken place
there, partly because the population has
been too harassed by the triangular war
between Dervishes, Abyssinians and Ital-
ians to kill of the game. and partly be-
cause the famous tribe of sword-hunters
the Hamran Arabs. were nearly extermi-
mated twelve years ago by an epidemic.
The Klondike discoveries will give, indi-
rectly, better facilities for reaching North
British Columbia and Southern Alaska
than have hitherto been available. and
though not new hunting grounds they
will come within range of a much larger
number of sportsmen. The forest region
of the Black sea coast Of the Caucasus
will probably remain. II is present,
the home of great quantities of big game.
but an impossible hunting ground. The
valleys are full of fever: diphtheria seems
native to the soil: and though bear boar
and deer abound and leopards are not un-
common and one of the remaining herds
of European bison still remains there, the
forest is so thick. so wet, and SO unhealthy
that it cannot become a regular hunting
ground. There remains one more possible
new hunting ground the oldest in the
world. for IL was possibly the scene of
Nimrods own exploits. This is the Bagh-
tiara highlands OF Persia. where the lion
is still numerous by the thick covers near
the ris ers.