366 



A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA 



black in the shade, while in the sun it appeared a deep 

 chestnut colour ; this gradually merged into silver grey 

 at the side, which in turn was separated from the white 

 of the belly by a brown line. The chestnut-coloured 

 head marked with grey was strikingly noticeable from 

 the great frontal lump, which distinguishes it from all 

 other species of ibex, and was in keeping with the 

 massiveness of the long sweeping horns, over 3^ feet 

 lonof and more than 1 1 inches in circumference, which 



SiMiEN Caps and a Money Bag. 



luckily had escaped all injury. When the work of photo- 

 graphing, measuring, skinning, and weighing was over, 

 we all had a rest, the Abyssinians falling to on a few 

 choice bits of still warm tripe and flesh. I found three 

 of the four shots had struck the ibex ; the first, just 

 missing the heart by the left, had gone through him, 

 broken up on the rock and cut the skin with the frag- 

 ments. 



We had a long climb back to the path above, which 

 ran close to the cliff, and was partly sheltered by 

 the debris falling from above and forming a bank at 

 some little distance from its face. The ibex appeared 



