ORDER ARTIODACTYLA: EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 619 



range from the Amarar Asortriba [near Port Sudan] to Abu Darag, 

 near Suez. The general way of hunting ibex is to surround a moun- 

 tain and let the dogs go ; they chase the ibex, which invariably makes 

 up the hill at first; the dogs follow till they run them to bay on some 

 crag or boulder, and the Arabs surround the animal and then spear 

 it. Four or five big ibex are sometimes taken like this in a morning." 

 (Wylde, 1888, p. 215.) 



Burckhardt wrote in 1819: "I frequently saw mountain-goats of 

 the largest size brought to the market of Shendi [about lat. 17 N.] ; 

 . . . their flesh is esteemed a great dainty." Schweinfurth in 1893 

 reported Ibex "just opposite Nagi Hamada, near Farchout [about 

 lat. 26 N.] , on the eastern side of the Nile." (De Winton, in Ander- 

 son and de Winton, 1902, p. 333.) 



"The Nubian Ibex is common on most of the large mountains at 

 the back of Souakin" (Cotton, 1912, p. 51). 



Flower (1932, pp. 436-437) gives the following account: 



The large numbers of Ibex heads and horns that used to be offered for 

 sale in Suez as from "Mount Sinai" might be from anywhere on either side 

 of the Gulf of Suez or the Red Sea. . . . 



Ibex inhabited the hills on the east side of the Nile from Cairo and Suez 

 southwards to the Sudan frontier. During my time I saw two individuals that 

 had been caught alive in the El Saff country, the district of Giza Province 

 that lies on the right bank of the Nile, but most specimens came from the 

 Assiut, Girga, and Qena Provinces. Englishmen employed on the construc- 

 tion of the railway between Luxor and Aswan in the last decade of the 

 nineteenth century told me that in the Aswan Province the Ibex came right 

 down to the river to drink .... 



Throughout the area, in spite of several attempts at protection by legislation, 

 by watchmen, and by stopping the sale of horns, this fine animal became 

 very rare in all districts of easy access, owing to much persecution from men 

 with firearms who waylaid the Ibex at the water-holes. Capt. G. W. Murray, 

 M. C., wrote, 3 April, 1920: "Ibex tracks and dung are rare in the big hills, 

 except on the almost inaccessible Gebel Shayeb (about 33 30' E. by 27 N.), 

 where I saw fresh dung in every nook and corner from 4000 feet to the very 

 summit of the mountain, 7200 feet. They must be very numerous, but I saw 

 none of them." 



By 1922 the Ibex in Upper Egypt appeared to be in great danger of extermi- 

 nation; but fortunately there were, and are, some men in leading positions 

 in Egypt doing all they could to save the species. 



"Eritrea contains a very few Nubian Ibex in the extreme north." 

 Some years prior to 1932, in the Red Sea Hills near Tokar, "there 

 were plenty of Ibex." (Maydon, 1932, pp. 194, 201.) 



Thirty years of preservation on the Wadi Rishrash, about 50 miles 

 southeast of Cairo, have prevented the annihilation of the local Ibex. 

 This was a private shooting reserve about 20 miles long and 10 

 miles wide, established by the late Prince Kamal el Din Hussein. 

 It is now maintained as a national reserve by King Fuad. Forty 

 Ibex were seen there at one time. (Russell Pasha, 1934, pp. 16-18.) 



