APPENDIX III.-MAMMALS 479 



itself and shot it. On the 26lh, I saw two large males feedinj,' by them- 

 selves, and later on found them with thirteen females. On the 2 7lh, 1 

 found the same herd and shot the two large males and one female. These 

 were the only three large males on the ground. I searched a good deal 

 of country round but only saw old tracks. The natives hunt these animals 

 persistently for their flesh, skins, and horns (which they use for tumblers), 

 and now that they are so much better armed, I believe in a very few years 

 the animals will be extinct. I was told of some other hunting-ground 

 farther to the north-east, but had not time to visit it. The three male 

 specimens shot and a head, which I found, all have the points of the horns 

 turned inwards ; but a pair of horns, presented to me by Dedjatch Zerefer, 

 which he said were obtained on Mount Hi, had the points turned outwards. 



" I found the ibex on the eastern slope of Mount Buiheat, one of the 

 highest in the Simian range — in the French maps it is marked as 4510 m. 

 in elevation. The top is undulating grass-land, with a much frequented path 

 running along close to the edge of the cliffs, at the foot of which is the ibex- 

 ground. 



•' The cliffs being too high for a shot, and, so far as I could discover, 

 there being no direct path down, it seemed to be a favourite amusement of 

 passing caravans to roll over stones in the hope of seeing a herd disturbed. 

 At the foot of the first line of cliffs, and below several lesser ill-defined 

 lines lower down, are the runs and lying-up places of the ibex and klip- 

 springer. The earth and stones dropping from above have formed banks 

 some little distance from the face of the cliffs, while here and there an 

 overhanging rock forms a roomy shelter under it. The ibex appear 

 regularly to use these partly concealed runs in moving from one part of the 

 ground to another, and it was in them that I found numerous traces of 

 where native shikaris had lain up to get a shot at them, generally 

 overlooking a drinking-place or a favourite shelter. 



" The steep ground between the different lines of cliffs is covered with long 

 coarse grass, along which the curious Tree-Lobelia {Lobelia rhynchopetala) 

 grows, besides firs, birch, and many scrubby bushes, the whole reminding 

 me very much of the kind of place where I have shot thar in Kistawar, 

 Kashmir, and being tiuite unlike any ground where I had previously seen 

 ibex. 



" Even when the animals were feeding in the early morning and late 

 afternoon, it was by no means easy to make them out amongst the under- 

 growth. At the foot of the mountain large flocks of sheep and goats were 

 grazing, being sheltered at night in caves, the openings of which were 

 protected by stone walls and wattles. Lower down there was a large 

 stretch of cultivated land, and several groups of huts forming the village of 

 Lurev. 



