MY FIRST IBEX 163 



This animal afterwards passed into my possession, 

 and was sent to the small zoological garden at Ilidze. 

 Unfortunately it died at Mostar, only a day's journey 

 from its destination. It is now stuffed in the Sarajevo 

 Museum. Its horns are so far the " record " specimen 

 of this ibex, twenty-seven inches and a half I mean, 

 of course, of the Antimilo breed, for there is a thirty- 

 one-inch head (at Schonbrlinn) from Crete ; and 

 specimens of those from the Asiatic continent are 

 authenticated over fifty inches long. 



The history of Antimilo is worth repeating. At the 

 end of the Turkish rule it remained in Government 

 hands, and the wild goats were supposed to be 

 strictly preserved. About 1888 the present owner 

 found some Turkish papers making it over to an 

 ancestor — went to law with the Government, and 

 gained his case. It is now let for sheep-grazing, and 

 the tenant has the right, or apparently the concurrent 

 right, of shooting the ibex. Mr Gialeraki estimated 

 the ibex on the island at three hundred, but I found 

 out afterwards that these absurd over-estimates were 

 common among the Greeks. Herr Reiser, who shot 

 on Antimilo in 1894, estimated them at about eighty, 

 and as will be seen hereafter, the Antimilo ibex is 

 probably now an extinct species. 



I now commenced preparations for my expedition, 

 and was introduced to the Robinson Crusoe of the 

 island, to whom I supposed I was to play the part of 

 Man Friday. Mr Gialeraki proposed to increase my 

 suite by a countryman of his own — a mighty hunter. 

 But when I learnt that the man in question was a 

 Cretan refugee who had been ten days in Milo, I 

 declined the offer, although it was enhanced by the 

 information that he " had a very good gun." I have 



