IBERVILLE, PIERRE LE MOYNE, Sieur la' (16(11-1706). A French-Canadian sol dier. naval commander, and explorer, founder of Louisiana. lie was one of the ten famous sons of Charles le Moyne of Montreal. Ile stud ied seamanship in the French Navy, but his tirst exploits were inland—from the Ottawa north to James's Bay, with an expedition destined to rain possession of the English forts there 116s6). Ile tank part in the expedition for the destruction of Seheneetady (1690). After captur ing (1696) 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 thn.e English ships against his one, and d• stroyed the last remaining post of the 'Hudson's Bay Company. From the far North he went to the far Smith, sailing from France (1699) to the Gulf of Mexico in search of the mouth of the Mississippi. found it. and lmilt a fort at Biloxi (q.v.), (-hanging afterwards to Mobile. thus ful filling La salle's dream of planting a French col ons on the Gulf. Ile left Canada in 1702, and died in Franee.
IBEX (Lat., chamois). The ancient name of the `steinboek' of the Alps; and now designating a section or subgenus of goats having the horns fiat, and marked with prominent knots in front, whereas those of the typical goats are compressed and keeled in front, and rounded be hind. The group contains four species, all in habitants of high mountainous regions, as de scribed below. All are characterized by a nearly uniform eotoration; but the hue varies with age and season, from gray, yellowish, or grizzled, to anions degrees of brown, usually lighter on the throat, belly, and inside of the legs than elsewhere. The short summer coat is exchanged in winter fur 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 m•r. Compare GoAT; and see Plate of WILD Go.vrs.
The typical ibex (Cap•u ibex), called 'bou quetin' 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 ways kept as high as possible, seeking its food, mainly by browsing bushes, at the edge of the snow, and not descending the valleys as does the ehamoiti, 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 he hardly visible in the summer coat. This ibex is easily tamed when taken young, and interbreeds readily with domestie goats.
The llimalayan ibex (Capra Sibirical is still numeronti, and Nv(.11 known to sportsmen. A rain stands 40 inches high at the withers, has a heavy heard, and the roughly knobbed horns often meas ure more than 50 inches along the outside curve, and II 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, lint 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 to nibble a scanty subsistence from the withered herbage. The resistance to cold and liardiness of constitution generally which this implies are characteristic of the race. They usually go about in small bands, led by old rains, but sometimes gather into herds of 100 or more. In the spring the males separate from the band and betake themselves to the highest erags, while the females seek retired places in which to bring forth their young. In spite 01 constant pursuit by hunters, the ravages of wild dogs, and destruction by avalanches, these ani mals seem to maintain their numbers (except near Kashmir ), 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, beeause 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 hooks of men like MacTntyre, Kinloeh, Mark ham, Pollok, and other Anglo-Indian sportsmen are full of entertaining accounts of this adven turous hunting, and to these observers we owe most of our knowledge of the haunts and habits of these animals.
The Arabian ibex (Capra SinaiIlea), or 'bed en,' occupies the rough heights of the Sinaitie Peninsula, Arabia Petroca, Palestine as far as Lebanon, and Upper Egypt. It is rather smaller than the Himalayan, and the knobs on the front of the horns are less prominent and regular. An Abyssinian species, the 'walk' (Capra walie), also exists, and differs from the others in the curva ture of its horns and a protuberance in the cen tre of the forehead.