IBEX-STALKING IN ANTIMILO 255 



wild animals like this through a good telescope when 

 they are quite unsuspicious of the presence of an 

 enemy, although, by the way, I noticed they were 

 careful enough to lie down with their heads facing in 

 every conceivably different direction. The big fellow 

 lay rather by himself. I daresay he was a bit of a 

 bully, for I had noticed him butt at a doe Avhich fed 

 near him. Of the kids he seemed more tolerant. To 

 my surprise, he got up at the end of some twenty 

 minutes, but it was only to select a smoother rock, 

 and down he went again. Fortunately the rain had 

 cleared off and the sun was quite hot, so my position 

 was not intolerable, though I lay behind that same 

 rock for two mortal hours. 



At last, on taking one of my periodical peeps over 

 the top, I was surprised to see the herd trotting off 

 again. One of those wretched sheep must have fed 

 directly to leeward of me again and then evinced 

 alarm. The ibex were not much frightened, but they 

 kept on steadily till they crossed the sky-line at the 

 highest point to my left, having thus circled almost 

 completely round me since I first found them. No 

 sooner were they out of sight than I was off in 

 pursuit, though with little hope, for the wind was 

 directly behind me. The rocky ridge I was ascending 

 was, however, cut off from the farther hill by a small 

 valley, along which, as I afterwards found out, there 

 was a cross current of wind. 



So when I again sighted them, or rather the big 

 buck, conspicuous by his light colour, although they 

 were apparently dead down wind, they lay perfectly 

 still. I guessed how this was ; and, leaving my 

 rucksack and alpenstock, worked my way up to the 

 highest point of my ridge on hands and knees. I was 



