i84 SPORT IN EUROPE 



they will leap up a perpendicular rock of lo or 14 feet high; they 

 spring from precipice to precipice, and bound along with such speed 

 that no dog would be able to keep up with them, even on better 

 ground than that where they are found. The sportsman must never 

 be to windward of them, or they will perceive his approach long 

 before he comes within musket-shot. They often carry off a ball, 

 and unless they fall immediately on being struck are mostly lost to 

 the sportsman, although they may have received a mortal wound. 

 They are commonly found two, three, or four together ; sometimes 

 a herd of eight or even nine is seen. A party of four Therisiotes 

 killed two wild goats about 1819, one of which weighed 28 okes 

 [an oke = 2*83 lbs.] and the other 35. They are always larger than 

 the common goat. In the winter time they may be tracked by the 

 sportsman in the snow. It is common for men to perish in the 

 chase of them. They are of a reddish colour {kokkivo.), and never 

 black or party-coloured, like the goat ; the number of prominences 

 on each horn indicates the years of the animal's age." Another 

 authority, second only to Pashley, Captain T. A. B. Spratt, says 

 [Ti^aveis a?id Reseai'ches in Crete, London, 1865, ii- P- ^3) of the 

 ibex: "We had seen several others in the ascent [of Mount Ida], 

 some forty in all, but they were too wary of any approach of man. 

 They were not to be taken, even by a Highland deer-stalker and 

 keen sportsman like my friend and companion Drummond, but 

 bounded away as soon as they were perceived over snow and steep, 

 crag and precipice, until they had gained another commanding peak 

 far out of reach of gun and rifle, and there again they watchfully 

 grouped themselves with their ponderous and sabre-shaped horns 



