THE IBEX OF IBEEIA 331 



Having thus the necessary paraphernalia on the 

 spot, it seemed a pity not to make another effort 

 after the ibex in the country where they certainly 

 did exist. My friend had been to the neighbour- 

 hood of the Sierra de Gredos, and had spied 

 out the land. So we settled to try our luck 

 there. 



Alas ! before the date on which I had arranged 

 to leave England, he received information that 

 the landowners of the Sierra de Gredos had joined 

 together to hand over their sporting rights to 

 the King of Spain, and that the range in future 

 was to form a Hoyal preserve. A visit to 

 the Spanish Embassy in London was fruitless. 

 "You might as well," said one of the secretaries, 

 '' ask for a day's shooting in Windsor Forest." 

 With great regret our proposed trip had to be 

 abandoned. 



It seems certain, therefore, that the ibex of the 

 Peninsula will never again be shot by an English 

 sportsman, unless, indeed, as the guest of royalty. 

 The Pyrenees may be taken as hopeless. A friend 

 of mine, who spends his life in the pursuit of the 

 great game, has made several trips thither with- 

 out seeing an ibex. There may still be a few, 

 but it is certainly not worth any one's while to 

 go there. Their haunts in the Sierra de Nevada 

 are in private hands. In the Sierra de Honda, 

 where brother officers of mine used to go from 

 Gibraltar to shoot them in my earliest soldiering 

 days, they are long since extinct. If they exist 

 in the Sierra Morena there might be a possible 

 chance in those mountains, but I have no record of 



