MY FIRST IBEX 169 



sight of a male wild goat amongst his native rocks, 

 and very impressive I thought it. Without a 

 thought of me, who, indeed, judged it too far, both 

 Greeks fired — I might almost say exchanged shots, 

 for the goat must have been almost exactly between 

 them. Peasants in all countries look to the bag, 

 not the sport ; and I, alas ! was on this occasion 

 powerless to remonstrate, though I well knew that 

 nothing but severe and distinct orders would put a 

 stop to such proceedings. However, this time no 

 harm was done, for both missed, and their shots 

 had the effect of puzzling the animal, which turned 

 tow^ards me. I moved on to get a better view — I 

 should rather say a view, for the ibex had gone into 

 a ravine, and I had nothing but the rolling of the 

 stones to guide me — and, unfortunately, in so doing 

 I dislodged a piece of rock, which went thundering 

 down to the sea and turned him again. He was 

 making up-hill now, and for bad ground too — a mass 

 of rocks, — but Giorgio's signals guided me, and I 

 clambered up in hot haste to cut him off. He saw 

 me first though, and turned away ; but I knew that 

 it was the last chance of a shot, and knew too that 

 a stern shot, if not so pretty as the shoulder shot, 

 is very nearly as effective, so I fired. That shot 

 practically ended the matter, though when Giorgio 

 went to gather him he did move off, and finally lay 

 down on a ridg-e of rock that went sheer down to 

 the water. I had a difficult crawl to give him the 

 coup-de-grdce^ and then the shepherds had a still 

 more awkward job to drag him up to fairly level 

 ground. 



This was most satisfactory, for though the beast 

 was small and quite brown, save a little grizzle about 



