Wild Spain Part 9

The ibex, or wild goat, has a wide range throughout the Alpine regions of the old world: and wherever it is found, from Spain to the Himalayas, takes a chief place amongst the beasts of chase. Few pictures, indeed, does the animal-world present more perfect than an old ibex-ram,[27]

with his thick-set, game-like form, his h.o.a.ry coat and flowing beard, and those ma.s.sive, widely-curving horns--no trophy more dear to the big-game sportsman, and few so hard to secure.

The Spanish Peninsula can boast an ibex peculiar to itself, a n.o.ble beast not to be found elsewhere than on Iberian soil. Till recently, we shared the opinion that two forms of ibex existed in Spain--the Pyrenean type, and the slightly divergent _Capra hispanica_ of the southern sierras: but further experience and a comparison of heads from various points, have convinced us that (except in the matter of size) there is no material difference between the Spanish races of wild goats. No difference, that is, greater than might naturally be looked for as between isolated colonies, separated one from another during centuries--for the ibex of Nevada or of Gredos is as effectually divided from his kind in the Pyrenees as though wide oceans rolled between.

Differences in habits, haunts, and food are well known to produce, during extended periods, corresponding differences in form: but so far as we are able to judge, the only material variation between the so-called _Capra pyrenaica_, of the north, and the _C. hispanica_, of Southern and Central Spain, is that of size. The Pyrenean ibex is a larger animal: but the horns are almost, though not quite, identical in form with those from the Sierra Nevada[28]: while both differ most materially from the well-known horns of the typical ibex, the _Capra ibex_ of the Alps and of Central Europe.

These differences will be seen at a glance in the photographs and rough sketches we annex. Briefly, the horns of the true ibex bend regularly backwards and downwards in a more or less uniform, scimitar-like curve: while those of _all_ Spanish goats, after first diverging laterally, become re-curved both inwards and finally upwards. That is, while in the one case the horns present a simple circular bend, in the Spanish ibex they form almost a spiral.[29]

A minor point of difference consists in the form of the annular notches, or rings. These in the Alpine ibex run more or less straight around, encircling the horn in front roughly like steps in a ladder: while in _Capra hispanica_ they run obliquely in a spiral ascent. These annulations indicate the age of the animal--one notch to each year: but the count must stop where the spiral ends. Beyond that, there is always the lightly-grooved tip which does not alter.

The horns of the female ibex are weak and comparatively short--only some six or seven inches in length, not unlike those of the chamois, but not so sharply hooked. These do _not_ grow annually: hence there is not the ready index of age afforded by the horns of the rams. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to add that the horns of goats are _permanent_, and not cast yearly as is the case with deer.

The following are the maximum dimensions of the heads of male ibex, measured by the authors--all from the central and south-Spanish sierras.

Age. Length. Sweep. Circ.u.mference.

1. Five years 18-1/2 in. 11-1/2 in. 9-3/8 in.

2. Eight " 27-1/2 " 23 " 9 "

3. " " 28-1/4 " 19 " 8-3/4 "

4. " " 29 " 18-3/4 " 9 "

5. Aged 29 " 22-1/2 " 9-1/4 "

6. " 29-1/4 " 23-1/4 " 9-1/2 "

Through the kindness of the late Sir Victor Brooke, we are also enabled to give the following measurements of his three best Pyrenean ibex heads.

Length. Sweep. Circ.u.mference.

A. 26 in. 21 in. 10 in.

B. 29 " 23 " 10 "

C. 31 " 26-1/2 " 8-3/4 "

Sir Victor Brooke wrote:--"A. This was a very grand _old_ ibex: but the points were broken and his horns rubbed smooth with age. The Pyrenean ibex are much larger beasts than those from the southern sierras."

The natural home of the ibex may be defined as exclusively amidst the summits of the wildest rock-mountains and most alpine spots upon earth--subject, however, to such, apparently accidental, variations of this general rule, as will be found hereinafter mentioned. Here their hollowed hoofs and marvellous agility enable them to traverse, at full speed, ice, crag, and precipice that seem absolutely impa.s.sable, and to mount rock-walls where no visible foothold exists, throwing into heart-breaking insignificance our puny efforts to encompa.s.s them. If a man's heart swells with the pride of strength--if he flatters himself that he is master of all the beasts of the field and of the arts of field-craft, let him try a campaign with the wild-goats--verily there is no sublunar undertaking better calculated to take the conceit out of him. Mere figures give but a poor idea: to say that the favourite haunts of ibex lie at alt.i.tudes of 8,000 to 10,000 feet, is hardly any real criterion of the difficulties and hardships of their pursuit. Suffice it here to say that the mere ascent to such heights occupies well-nigh a whole day: even when encamped among the fringe of the snow, the climb-out to the summits may still require two or three hours of the hardest work.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SPANISH IBEX, OLD RAM--SIERRA DE GREDOS.]

Ibex are found throughout the highlands of the Peninsula, from Pyrenees to Mediterranean, but not continuously--their haunts being distinct and separated by intervening plains. They inhabit all the Pyrenees[30] and are comparatively numerous on the hills round Andorra (Pyrenees orientales). In the south their great strongholds are the Sierras Nevada and Morena, where herds of twenty, thirty, or even fifty, may sometimes be seen together. Besides these main southern haunts, the ibex have several detached colonies in the hill-ranges of Andalucia and Estremadura. Along all the elevated cordillera of Central Spain, the ibex find a congenial home: but their chosen stronghold is in the extensive Sierra de Gredos. This elevated point is the apex of the long Carpeto-Vetonico range which extends from Moncayo through the Castiles and Estremadura, forming the watershed of the Tagus and Douro; it separates the two Castiles, and pa.s.sing the frontier of Portugal, is there known as the Serra da Estrella, which (with the Cintra hills) extends to the Atlantic seaboard. Along all this extensive cordillera there is no more favourite ground for the ibex than its highest peak, the Plaza de Almanzor, 10,000 feet above sea-level. During the winter and early spring the wild goats have a predilection for the southern slopes towards Estremadura: but in summer and autumn large herds, often numbering dozens, and especially the n.o.ble rams, make their home in the environs of Almanzor and the lonely alpine lakes of Gredos.

Our personal experiences of the Spanish ibex are limited to four points--two in the southern sierras, and two on the central cordillera: in three of which the habits of the goats exhibited some very remarkable variations. These, however, we describe more particularly when treating of ibex-shooting in other chapters.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SPANISH IBEX, OLD RAM, SIERRA NEVADA. (Front view)]

The ibex is strictly nocturnal in its habits, pa.s.sing the day at rest, either on the snow-fields or amidst the most rugged and inaccessible ground within its reach, and only descending to lower levels to feed after sun-down. This habit never varies. In the more elevated cordilleras, where, even in summer, there remain great expanses of snow and glacier-ice, the wild goats retire at dawn to the heights, spending the day on some bare rock or among the crevices of crags islanded in the snow-field, and always guarded from danger of surprise by sentries, who hold watch and ward from some commanding point. Here, except sometimes during the hottest days of July and August, they are all but inaccessible--it is impossible to "turn their flank," for they have, behind them, vast breadths of snow impa.s.sable to man: while the vigilance of their sentries simply mocks the stalker--even if their position is not physically inexpugnable. The only systematic method employed by native hunters, at such times, is the unsatisfactory one of waiting, at dusk, to "cut them out" in the pa.s.ses by which they are accustomed to descend to their feeding-grounds--a bitterly cold and most uncertain undertaking, to say nothing of its danger, for after sun-down the soft snow freezes into a solid ice-sheet, cutting off the hunter's retreat along the steep slope of the sierra.

The ibex of these higher sierras never descend to the level where pines, high brushwood, or indeed any covert can grow. Their home is on the snow and rock, and they only descend as far as that zone of moss, heath, and stunted alpine vegetation which intervenes between the snow-line and the highest levels of conifer or tree-growth. Their food consists of the bloom and shoots of various alpine shrubs, gra.s.ses and flowers--the Spanish gorse, broom, rosemary, and _piorno_, as well as certain narcissi, mountain-berries, and the peasants' scant crops of rye-gra.s.s.

For this latter luxury they are tempted to come down rather lower: but under no circ.u.mstances, not even in winter, are the ibex of Gredos or Nevada found in the forests or amongst covert of any kind.

Such, in outline, are the habits of the ibex of the higher sierras. But ibex also exist on mountain-ranges of much lesser elevations, and _there_ their habits differ widely. Some of these lower hills are covered with brushwood to their very crests--one has pines on its summit, at 4,800 feet. Here the ibex cannot, of course, disdain the shelter of the scrub, and even frequent the forests at much lower elevations. We have hunted them in ground that looked far more suitable for roe-deer, and have even seen the "rootings" of pig overlapping the feeding-grounds of the goats.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SPANISH IBEX. OLD RAM. (Side view.)]

In such situations, the ibex form regular "lairs" amidst the fastnesses of broom, gorse and th.o.r.n.y _abolaga_, on the bloom of which they browse by night, without having to descend or to shift their quarters at all.

On these lower hills the ibex owe their safety--and survival--exclusively 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.[31]

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 dislodge 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 ill.u.s.trates the pre-eminently astute nature of the animal.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XIX.

ON THE CRAGS OF ALMANZoR.

Page 137.]

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 _serrano_ hunts rather for the pot than for sport, and spares neither s.e.x nor age.

With all his sportsman-like qualities and skill in his craft, our friend is not truly a sportsman. He is, we fear, but a butcher at heart; _meat_ is what he seeks; to him a female is only a less desirable quarry than her lord in the ratio of her smaller weight--about one-fourth less. It is the same with everything; with partridge, a covey at a shot, as they run up in file to the traitor _reclamo_; with bustard, to ma.s.sacre a pair as they stoop to drink at a water-hole in the thirsty summer days; with trout, to decimate a river by poisoning the streams, tipping in a cart-load of quicklime, or blowing up a pool by dynamite--such are the cherished objects of our friend, the Spanish _cazador_; and yet, despite it all, we like him, and are never happier than during the hours we spend in his company around the camp-fire.

In form and build, the ibex represents the very perfection of combined power and action--if physical adaptation counts in the struggle for the "survival of the fittest," the wild goat need hardly fear extinction.

His thickset frame, broad front, and prominent eyes, with well-poised neck, clean quarters, and the light muscular legs set well within his short round barrel, all bespeak qualities which admirably adapt him to the hard, strange life a.s.signed by nature to the wild-goat.

During the summer months, the ibex feast luxuriously on the abundant crop of mountain-gra.s.ses, flowering shrubs and rush, which at that season clothe the Alpine solitudes; and, later, on the various berries and wild fruits of the hills. By autumn they are in their highest condition--the long black beards of the old rams fully developed, and their brown coats long, glossy, and almost uniform in colour. At this period the rutting season takes place--in October; and the _machos_ fight furiously for the a.s.sembled harems--rearing on hind legs for a charge, the crash of opposing horns resounds afar across the glens and corries of the sierra. Even in spring their combative instinct survives; we have watched, in April, a pair of veterans sparring at each other for an hour together.

The young ibex are born in April, and soon learn to follow their dams--graceful little creatures, like brown lambs, easily captured if the mother is shot, but not otherwise. One is the usual number, but two is not infrequent. It is a curious fact that the kid remains with its dam upwards of a year--that is, till after a second family has been born. Consequently it is usual, in spring, to see the females in trios--the mother, her yearling daughter, called the _chivata_, and the new-born kid, or _chivo_. Though, as just stated, there are often two young, yet we have never seen more than one _chivata_ with each female ibex--possibly it is only the female kids that remain so long with their dams. In May the _chivatas_ are conspicuously smaller than the adult females, but their horns are nearly as large.

At this season (April-May) the ibex are changing their coats; the males have almost entirely lost their flowing beards, and in colour a.s.sume a h.o.a.ry, piebald appearance, especially on cheeks and forequarters, contrasting with the darker portions above and behind. The muzzle is warm cream-colour, and the lower part of the leg (below the knee) prettily marked with black and white; on the knee, a callosity, or round patch of bare hard skin. The horns of yearling males are larger and heavier than those of adult females.

Though it is the custom of the hill-shepherds during summer to drive out their herds of goats to pasture on the higher ranges of the sierra, where they must sometimes come in contact with their wild congeners, yet no inter-breeding takes place; nor can the race of wild ibex be reduced to domesticity. The hunters frequently capture the young ibex--it is sometimes given as an excuse for killing the dam--yet they rarely survive long in captivity, and never mate with the domestic goat. In May we could not hear of a single wild kid of the previous year's capture that had survived the twelvemonth in any of the hill-villages of Gredos.

The form of the horns in the domestic goat is essentially different; they are much flatter, thinner, and not a quarter as large as those of the wild ibex. The latter can hardly have been the progenitor of the race of goats now domesticated in Spain.

The smell of a dead ibex is specially strong and unpleasant--an old male stinks far worse than a vulture; yet little or no trace of this remains after cooking. Their flesh is firm and brown, fairly good eating, but without any special flavour or individuality--that is, when subjected to the rude cookery of the camp.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD OLIVE TREES--NEAR TALAVERA.]

CHAPTER XII.

IBEX-SHOOTING IN SPAIN.

I.--SIERRA DE GREDOS (OLD CASTILE).

Twenty-six hours on the railway--at first with the comparative luxury of a Pullman-car: the last seven crawling across the Castilian plain, towards the frowning ridges that look down on Talavera, whereon our Iron Duke repulsed nearly twice his numbers of French, and turned the tide of war: then thirty odd miles in a diligence, and finally a five-league mountain-scramble on mules--this it costs us to reach the home of the Castilian ibex.

Night was closing in and sleet descending in driving sheets, when at length, round a projecting spur, we sighted our destination. The hamlet hung on the steep slope of the sierra, whose snow-clad heights and jagged peaks, towering away into cloud-land, gave us a fair forecast of the labours in store. As for the village--a more picturesque, rumble-tumble maze of quaint, shapeless hovels, all pitched down apparently at random, with their odd chimneys, odd balconies and projecting gables, all wood-built, it would be hard for fancy to depict, or for artist to discover. And the natives--the light-framed, lithe mountaineers, clad in the short _majo_ jackets, tight knee-breeches and cloth gaiters, with smart sky-blue waist-coats, bra.s.s-b.u.t.toned, and crimson _fajas_: the women enveloped in brilliant _mantas_ of gra.s.s-green or scarlet, and with short petticoats that displayed rounded limbs, bare to the knee--verily we seemed to have fallen upon some surviving vestige of Goth or Moor, all unknown to the world, hidden away in these recesses of the sierra.