THE IBEX. 



Some authors have afTerted, that if the Ibex is clofely purfued, and cannot 

 poflibly efcape by any other method, it will precipitate itfelf from the brow 

 of the mountain, and light upon its horns (a) in fuch a manner as generally 

 fecures its body from injury: or that it will otherwife fufpend itfelf from 

 fome projecting tree, over a precipice, and there remain till the enemy has 

 patted by, or abandoned his fruitless efforts. From thefe circumftances it 

 muft be fufficiently obvious, that it is difficult to be mot, and that the 

 chace of i t is peculiarly dangerous. 



During the feafon of love, the braying of the males re-echoes through the 

 excavations of the rocks with a horrible noife. At the time of parturition, 

 the females retire to the ride of fome neighbouring rill, and there bring forth 

 their young. They have feldom more than one Kid at a time, and the length 

 of their lives is faid to be inconsiderable. 



In the moll fevere part of winter, they defcend a little, in quell of pafturage. 

 Their blood was formerly accounted ufeful in pleurilies, and their flelh is 

 efteemed excellent. 



They inhabit the Pyrenean and Carpathian mountains; the molt, elevated 

 piers of the Sierra de Ronda, in the province of Granada ; the Grifons country; 

 and the highelt. points of the Rhoetian Alps. They are likewife found on the 

 mountainous chain which ftretches between eaftern Tartary and Siberia; the 

 tracl: beyond the Lena ; the province of Hedojaes, in Arabia ; and the lofty 

 hills of Crete, where they are faid to cure the wounds of arrows by browiing 

 on the herb dittany. 



(a) This assertion seems to be justified by the frequent and well-known circumstance of the Ibex being 

 found with only one horn, the other being broken by a fall. 



