BIG GAME IN GREECE 399 



These were sold for a song, or given away to all comers. The 

 war proved the volunteers who did go to the front to be by 

 no means the worst of Greek troops, but comparatively few 

 did go ; and when the war was over the rifles were retained 

 by the people, and are now, as a matter of fact, to be bought 

 anywhere for a few francs. Every peasant who has any 

 chance of shooting has one, and they are freely used as 

 shot-guns. 



Now let me give a few examples from my own experience. 

 Towards the end of November 1898 a friend and I left England 

 for Greece on a shooting trip. The objects of our quest were 

 threefold — firstly, the ibex of Antimilo ; secondly, those of 

 Joura ; and thirdly, the fallow-deer of the Adramyttian Gulf. 

 Of the first only I had previous experience ; of the second I 

 knew that they were protected by Government, and that Herr 

 Reiser had seen plenty in 1895 ; while of the third I knew 

 that they had been protected by the Government for years. 



Taking Antimilo first, as it was the first place we visited, 

 I found a great change had taken place. It is true that in 

 some eight years previously to my first visit the shepherd and 

 his son had reduced the ibex from some eight hundred to 

 about one hundred. But between Herr Reiser's visit in 1895 

 and mine in 1897 there had been no substantial decrease, 

 owing principally to the badness of the shepherd's guns when 

 real stalking became necessary. Now they had each a Gras 

 rifle. The number of ibex had sunk from one hundred to a 

 third of that number. Of seven great bucks I had seen to- 

 gether, possibly one had remained till it was shot b}^ an 

 English officer just before my visit; but the heads of the 

 others were lying about the shepherd's hut — or rather the 

 chopped- ofl* horns, for nothing edible is wasted. Probably 

 the Antimilo ibex are extinct to-day. 



At Joura it was the same story. Count von der Mtihle, 

 writing in 1844, says the ibex there were so plentiful that 

 Greek soldiers who took refuge there in 1839 killed a score or 

 so with their bayonets. In comparatively recent times there 

 were six to eight hundred left. Reiser's party, who easily 

 bagged three, estimated them at two hundred to two hundred 

 and fifty in 1895. At Christmas 1898, we authenticated 

 fifteen (or possibly seventeen) ibex on this island, but as it is 



