MY FIRST IBEX 167 



no fresh water on Antimilo. There are, however, 

 brackish water- holes near the sea-level, which the 

 ibex use regularly. Besides these animals there is 

 now nothing on the island but tame sheep/ Some 

 years ago there were tame goats also,^ but they 

 ran away and had to be shot. According to the 

 shepherd, Giorgio Vichos, there were six to seven 

 hundred head of ibex on the island ten years ago. 

 Now he correctly estimates them at from seventy 

 to eighty head." 



I slept on the bottom of our boat on this occasion, 

 and as such couches are the best alarums that I 

 know of, I was up at dawn next morning ; and by 

 seven o'clock I started off with Giorgio (to give 

 Crusoe his real name) and his eldest son, who rejoiced 

 in the poetic appellation of " Star." Of the two 

 weapons I had brought with me I selected a single 

 •400 " Snaffle " rifle, whose twenty-two inch barrel 

 contrasted greatly with the yard-long barrels of the 

 guns which my companions insisted on taking. 



The landing-place at Antimilo is at the bottom 

 of the slope formed by an old volcano, of which 

 the seaward side has disappeared. We worked 

 our way by the best path on the island, up into 

 the crater on a projecting part of whose cup Giorgio 

 has a hut, which, however, I did not see on this 

 occasion. Thence we climbed up the left rim, which 

 is fairly intact, and whose lip here forms the main 

 ridge. Crossing this in a somewhat southerly 

 direction we came out on a lateral ridge overhanging 

 the sea on the other side — a good spying place. 

 Northward of this is a very steep slope, covered 



1 The shepherd had some donkeys there in 1897, and also in 1898. 

 ^ Mr WiUiam James saw tame goats there as lately as 1886. 



