On all other sides of him was the beetling cliff.

He had no alternative but fight, or be "knocked over." It was less a matter of choice than necessity that determined him upon standing his ground.
This determination he had just time to take, and just time to put himself in an attitude of defence, when his antagonist charged towards him.

Both animals, at the same instant, uttered a fierce, snorting sound, and rising upon their hind-legs, stood fronting each other like a brace of bipeds.

In this movement the spectators recognised the exact mode of combat practised by common goats; for just in the same fashion does the ibex exhibit his prowess.

Instead of rushing _horizontally_, head to head, and pressing each other backwards, as rams do in their contests, the ibex after rearing aloft, come down again, horns foremost, using the weight of their bodies as the propelling power, each endeavouring to crush the other between his massive crest and the earth.
Several times in succession did the two combatants repeat their rearings aloft, and the downward strokes of their horns; but it soon became evident, that the one who had been the assailant was also to be the conqueror.