IBEX-STALKING IN ANTIMILO 249 



the flesh was weak, there was at least some excuse 

 for the weakness. On the first day I had been out 

 about ten hours, including a four hours' stalk, and, 

 if the next day had been an easy one, Saturday had 

 meant five hours climbing to the place where I had 

 shot the ibex, and two hours sitting in cold rain 

 whilst the lad descended the precipices. Moreover, 

 I take it that there is no place better calculated than 

 the islet of Antimilo to cause one to break through 

 a resolution of this kind. As a rule you are either 

 laboriously climbing up or else cautiously climbing 

 down, and where the ground is level you still have 

 to pick your way amongst big loose stones and thorny 

 bushes. After a day or two of this one gets very 

 tired of carrying a rifle and rucksack. Besides, I 

 was giving V. something like a decade, which was 

 perhaps the reason he good-naturedly said nothing 

 when, after dinner on Saturday, I announced my 

 intention of taking Star with me on the following 



day. 



Accordingly, with the lad carrying my rifle and 

 bag, with lunch and other necessaries, myself carry- 

 ing only my telescope and alpenstock, we left camp 

 about eight, having waited till then to let the rain 

 cease. An hour's sharp climb brought us to the spot 

 where I had killed my first ibex, whence we pro- 

 ceeded to spy the moraine to the southward and 

 below us. The shepherd's quick eye was the first 

 to pick up the game. 



'"Ay/Dt/xta !" he ejaculated; and I soon had the 

 glass on them. One look showed they were but 

 small stufl*, and not w^orth considering, so we moved 

 on northwards. Not many hundred yards on there 

 is another prominent ridge of rocks with an outlook 



