136 



WILD SPAIN. 



to the rough and intercepted nature of the ground, over- 

 grown for miles with forest and matted brushwood ; 

 and, in some degree, to their own comparatively small 

 numbers.* 



A third very distinct habitat we have described in detail 

 elsewhere. Here, on an isolated mountain, detached from 

 the adjoining sierras, and affording neither the refuge of 

 snow-fields nor jungle, the mother-wit of a segregated 

 band of ibex managed to discover a sanctuary scarcely 

 less secure. As elsewhere described, they simply shut 

 the door on pursuit by betaking themselves into the 

 clefts and crannies of a hanging rock-wall some three 

 miles long and 2,000 feet high. To these eagle's eyries no 

 other terrestrial being could follow, nor human power dis- 

 lodge the astute monteses, whose beards, for all we know, 

 were shaking with laughter as they gazed down upon their 

 discomfited enemies. 



In this case, the ibex may almost be said to have " gone 

 to ground" ; for they actually sought shelter, when hard 

 pressed, in the caves and ravines with which the face of 

 these precipices were serried. This seems opposed to all 

 one's ideas of what ought to be the habits of a wild goat ; 

 but it well illustrates the pre-eminently astute nature 

 of the animal. 



Were it otherwise — were it not for this reasoning sagacity 

 in utilizing the natural resources of each locality — in short, 

 adapting their habits to the necessities of the case, the 

 existence of these isolated colonies of ibex, on limited 

 terrain, would be impossible. Even as it is, their survival 

 is, we fear, in some cases, only a question of years, for the 

 tiradores of the sierra hunt them in season and out. The 



* The ibex of Asia Minor — a quite distinct species, Capra cegragus 

 — appears, according to Mr. E. N. Buxton (Nineteenth Century, 

 February, 1891, p. 251, et seq.), to have somewhat similar habits, 

 frequenting the pine forests and lower wooded slopes of the hills, by 

 preference to the treeless summits. But the Turkish mountaineer is 

 a very different man to his Spanish representative, and appears utterly 

 careless of the charms of the chase, seldom molesting the wild goats, 

 whereas in Spain they are rarely left in peace while there is a chance 

 of killing them. 



