214 SPORT IN EUROPE 



mountains above the region favoured by the chamois. The ibex 

 runs with swift and sure foot across the rock sHdes that top the 

 glaciers, leaping from point to pinnacle, and is capable of abruptly 

 staying its dizzy flight on some point scarce large enough to accom- 

 modate its four feet. The male has, like the Asiatic species, a beard ; 

 as a further distinction, the horns of the female are shorter. The 

 averaoe aee of ibex is about fifteen years ; the heioht at shoulder 

 is about 35 inches; the weight may be as much as 150 lbs. clean. 

 The record male horns bagged by his late Majesty King Humbert 

 measure as follows (duly entered in the third edition of Rowland 

 Ward's Records of Bio- Game, p. 347) : — Length on front curve, 44^ ; 

 circumference, \o\\ tip to tip, 27. In the rutting season, from the 

 middle of December until the end of January, the females live 

 together in herds led by a male, who guides, defends, and warns them 

 against danger. The young are dropped about the end of May, or 

 during June. The ibex feeds on such grasses as it can find, as well 

 as on shoots of the mountain willow, dwarf birch and rhododendrons. 

 The proper months for shooting ibex are July and August, and 

 some years also September, that is when the mountains have not 

 become impassable with the fallen snow. The King 



-., used to ride a pony to the appointed o-round, o-enerallv 



Preserves. 1 -^ 1 r .^ - t-. 



two hours or more from the camp, at about 3,000 metres, 

 by paths expressly cut for the purpose, and in some of the moraines 

 supported by a wall, and, when skirting precipices, cut out of the solid 

 rock. 



The beaters, picked from the hardy inhabitants of those valleys, 

 are all first-class climbers, so that accidents are very rare, in spite of 



