IBEKCOURT. 418 IBEX. Dutch Government that the author suffered a shcirt tiiiii Hi iiiii)ii>oiiinent. IBE'RIAN MADONNA. A wonder-worl;ing piituic in till' Kremlin, Moscow. IBE'RIANS (l.at. Ibcres, Gk. 'Ifivfxt). A people anciently livinji at the niouih of the Iberus or Ebro River, in Eastern Spain. Later, the in- habitants of the entire lVnin>iila were so called. The term is now applied to the primitive Neolithic and lironzeape men whose remains and relies are fuund in ancient ^.Taves, friotliK's, and refuse heaps tliroii<;hout Western Kuro|)e. Their ovoid and ellipsoid crania, called I'elasgic type by Sergi. resemble those of ancient Italy. Greece, .■sia Minor. Egj-pt, Ethiopia, and North Africa, belonging to what he denominates the Mediter- ranean race. Keanc also quotes Von der Gabe- lentz in the proof of identity between the Bitsque or Jberian and the Berber speech. This long- headed man. of low stature, has been traced as far as the British Isles, and is identified with the Picts and other groups. The term 'Iberian' is used by English ethnologists for the Mediter- ranean race, and Deniker's title for the same group is 'Iberolnsuhir.' Keanc subdivides the historical Iberian (Ba.sque) as follows. The de- scendants from old extinct Iberian are: £u8cara (Spanish Basque)... Bascunse (French Basque).. Quipuzcoan BIsca.van. or UpptT Nnvarrese North Upper Navarrese South LabnrdlD Souletlii. or Lower .Nftvarrese East Lower Navarrese West Consult: Keane, Man: Past and Present (Cam- bridge. 18!t9) ; Sergi, Mediterranean Race (Lon- don, I'JOl). IBE'RIS. See C. dytltt. IBE'RUS, The ancient name of the Ebro (q.v. I. IBERVILLE, f'bar'vel', Pierre le Moyne, Sieur d' ( lUf.1-1706) . A French-Canadian .sol- dier, naval commander, and explorer, founder of Louisiana. He was one of the ten famous sons of Charles le Moyne of Montreal. He stud- ied seamanship in the French Navy, but his first exploits were inland — from the Ottawa north to James's Bay, with an exiwdition destined to gain possession of the English forts there (1680). He took part in the expedition for the destruction of Schenectady (1C90). After captur- ing (1000) and demolishing the stone fort at Pemaquid. built to protect New England. Iber- ville thought of taking Boston, but sailed instead to Newfoundland, where he burned the village of Saint .John's, laying waste all the British settle- ments on the island. Thence he steered for Hudson Bay, where he had a gallant victory over three English ships against his one, and de- stroyed the last remaining post of the Hudson's Bay Company. From the far North he went to the far South, sailing from France (1000) to the Gulf of Mexico in search of the mouth of the Mississippi, found it, and built a fort at Biloxi (q.v.), changing afterwards to Mobile, thus ful- filling La Salle's dream of planting a French col- ony on the Gulf. He left Canada in 1702, and died in France. IBEX (Lat.. chamois). The ancient name of the 'steinhock' of the .Mps; and now designating a section or subgenus of goats having the horns llat, and marked with prominent transverse knots in front, whereas those of the typical goats are compressed and keeled in front, and rounded be- hind. The group contains four »|)ecies, all in- habitants of high mounUiinous regions, as de- scribed below. All are cliaraclerized by a nearly uniform coloration; but the hue varies with age and season, from gray, yellowish, or gri/zlcd, to various degrees of brown, usually lighter on the throat, belly, and inside of the legs than elsewhere. The short summer coat is exchanged in winter for a longer, warmer one, mixed with an under wool. The pairing season of all is in midwinter, and the kids, usually two, are born in early sum- mer. Compare Goat; and see Plat* of Wild Goats. The typical ibex (C'upra ibex), called 'bou- quet in' by the French, and 'steinbock' by the Ger- mans, has long been exterminated as a wild ani- mal, but is preserved by the Italian Government in a few valleys of the Piedmontese region. For- merly it seems to have roamed all over the Alps of Switzerland. Savoy, and the Tyrol, but al- waj's kept as high as po.ssible. seeking its food, mainly by browsing bushes, at the edge of the snow, and not descending the valleys as does the chamois. Though larger and more powerful than the common goat, it is smaller than the other ibexes. The horns rarely exceed 30 inches in length and have the knobs not prominent, while the beard of the males is .so small as to be hardlj' visible in the summer coat. This ibex is easily tamed when taken young, and interbreeds readily with domestic goats. The Himalayan ibex (Capra Sibiriea) is still numerous, and well kiio'vn to s|)orlsmcn. A ram stands 40 inches liigli a( the withers, has a heavy beard, and the roughly knobbed horns often meas- ure more than 50 inches along the outside curve, and 11 to 12 inches in greatest girth. It inhabits all the mountain ranges of Central Asia from the borders of Persia eastward to the frontier of Tibet, and northward into Siberia ; and is found not only on the summits, but on the open plateaus of the Pamir. Ordinarily, however, ibexes remain upon the crags as near as possible to the snow-line. They descend in winter only so far as is necessary to find uncovered pastur- age, and often linger at that season at great altitudes where the wind sweeps steep slopes, and allows them tx> nibble a scanty subsistence from the withered herbage. The resistance to cold and hardiness of constitution generally which this implies are characteristic of the race. They usually go about in small bands, led by old rams, but rjometimes gather into herds of 100 or more. In the spring the males separate from the band and betake themselves to the highest crags, while the females seek retired phiccs in which to bring forth their young. In spite of constant pursuit by hunters, the ravages of wild dogs, and destruction by avalanches, these ani- mals seem to maintain their numbers (except near Kashmii ) , as they are prolific, and accus- tomed to wandering widely. Ibex-shooting is one of the most exciting and difficult feats offered to the sportsman, iK'cause of the nature of the coun- try in which the animals live, and their extreme wariness and ability to escape down precipices and over crags which baffle their pursuers. The books of men like Maclntyre, Kinloch, Mark- ham, PoUok, and other Anglo-Indian sportsmen are full of entertaining accounts of this adven-
