92 IBEX 



rutting-season. There were slight falls of snow and hail, and it was 

 very cold at night. There are said to be two feet of snow on the 

 hill-tops in August. On June 25, I saw two males and one female; 

 later, on the same day, I saw a larger male, which I shot. On the 

 26th, I saw two large males feeding by themselves, and later on found 

 them with thirteen females. On the 27th, I found the same herd and 

 shot the two large males and one female. These were the only three 

 large males on the ground. I searched a good deal of country round 

 but only saw old tracks. The natives hunt these animals persistently 

 for their flesh, skins, and horns (which they use for tumblers), and now 

 that they are so much better armed, I believe in a very few years the 

 animals will be extinct. I was told of some other hunting-ground 

 farther to the north-east, but had not time to visit it. The three male 

 specimens shot, and a head which I found, have the points of the 

 horns turned inwards ; but a pair of horns, presented to me by 

 Dedjatch Zerefer, which he said were obtained on Mount Hi, had the 

 points turned outwards. 



" I found the ibex on the eastern slope of Mount Buiheat, one of 

 the highest in the Simien range. The top is undulating grass-land, 

 with a much frequented path running along close to the edge of the 

 cliffs, at the foot of which is the ibex-ground. 



" The cliffs being too high for a shot, and, so far as I could dis- 

 cover, there being no direct path down, it seemed to be a favourite 

 amusement of passing caravans to roll over stones in the hope of 

 seeing a herd disturbed. At the foot of the first line of cliffs, and 

 below several lesser ill-defined lines lower down, are the runs and 

 lying-up places of the ibex and klipspringer. The earth and stones 

 dropping from above have formed banks some little distance from 

 the face of the cliffs, while here and there an overhanging rock forms 

 a roomy shelter under it. The ibex appear regularly to use these 

 partly concealed runs in moving from one part of the ground to 

 another, and it was in them that I found numerous traces of where 

 native shikaris had lain up to get a shot at them, generally overlooking 

 a drinking-place or a favourite shelter. 



" The steep ground between the different lines of cliffs is covered 

 with long coarse grass, along which the curious tree-lobelia (^Lobelia 

 rJiyncJiopetalimi) grows, besides firs, birch, and many scrubby bushes, 

 the whole reminding me very much of the kind of place where I have 

 shot thar in Kishtwar, Kashmir, and being quite unlike any ground 

 where I had previously seen ibex. 



" Even when the animals were feeding in the early morning and 



