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CHAPTEE XXXIII. 



THE IBEX OF IBERIA. 



Being always in quest of sport with the rifle in 

 places where few Englishmen have preceded me, I 

 was naturally greatly struck with the glowing account 

 of sport in Portugal contained in a book which ap- 

 peared some years ago in England. This book was 

 edited by a member of the Zoological Society, and 

 the Portuguese article it contained was signed by 

 a nobleman well known as a member of the Poyal 

 Household and a constant companion of the late 

 King, whose sporting proclivities were also a matter 

 of common knowledge. Such an article in such a 

 book must admittedly rank as authoritative, and as 

 such I took it, and decided to try for a Portuguese 

 ibex — a trophy which, as far as I know, no English 

 sportsman can show. Before going, however, I made 

 use of the usual method — that is to say, I wrote to 

 our Consul at Oporto, and, as usual, received a 

 prompt and careful reply. Mr Honorius Grant, the 

 Acting-Consul at the time, said that there certainly 

 had been at no very distant period some ibex in 

 the Gerez Mountains in the extreme north of the 

 country, and in fact one had been captured there 



