274 Goats 



was prohibited under a fine of fifty gold crowns, and twenty-one years 

 later by a still heavier penalty. At the close of the seventeenth century it 

 was still found in the mountains around Bagnethal, and at the commence- 

 ment of the eighteenth century in Wallis, since which date it has completely 

 disappeared from Switzerland. Its date of extermination from one ot 

 the valleys of the Tyrol has been alreadv mentioned; in the year 1666 

 a few head still survived in the Zillerthal. In 1694 there were known 

 to be 72 bucks, 83 does, and 24 fawns living in the Tyrol ; but 

 by 1706 the number had diminished to 5 bucks and 7 does, since 

 which date none have been seen. On the Piedmontese side of Monte 

 Rosa, thanks to Government protection, the ibex has been more fortu- 

 nate, and, as already said, herds exist in several valleys, although it is 

 doubtful whether all these are pure bred. In 1865 Tschudi reported 

 them to be comparatively numerous, since which date several fine speci- 

 mens have, by special permission, been shot. In earlier days ibex must 

 have been very abundant, since it is stated that between one and two 

 hundred head were on more than a single occasion exhibited alive in 

 the Roman amphitheatre. 



In Prehistoric and Plistocene times the distribution of the animal was 

 much more extensive than at a later date. A horn has been found in 

 one of the Swiss pile-villages, but this, of course, might have been brought 

 from the mountains by some early hunter. Heer, in his Ancient 

 Sivitzcrliind, states that horn-cores have been found in the gravel of Oberried 

 in the Rhine valley, and a skull in a glacial moraine at Pontegana. And 

 Nehring also mentions the occurrence of similar remains here and there 

 in the superficial deposits of various districts in Central and Western Europe. 

 He is, however, of opinion that the ibex remains discovered in Bohemia 

 belong to the Asiatic rather than to the European species. Heer likewise 

 states that fossilised ibex bones have been obtained from many parts of 

 Italy, even as far south as Naples. And it may accordingly be considered 



