30 Mr. C. H. Smith's Observations on some Animals 



remarkably long, and the hoofs small, pointed and black, mea- 

 suring scarcely half an inch from the crown to the sole : there 

 are no tufts on the knees. The texture of the hair is soft and 

 straight, falling off readily : from between the shoulders it points 

 forward on the ridge of the neck, and from the horns, where it 

 is longer, it turns backwards, meeting at the occiput, where it 

 forms a kind of tuft. The eye, according to a memorandum, 

 is hazel-colour ; and the whole animal presents a character unit- 

 ing vigour with considerable beauty. 



Having had an opportunity of showing the drawing to a very 

 intelligent Indian of the Kluche nation*, inhabiting the western 

 branches of the Stony Mountains, he recognised the figure im- 

 mediately, and stated its name to be Kistu-he, or, as he translated 

 it, Little Elk. He observed that during winter, when enormous 

 heaps of snow cover the mountains, these animals come down 

 into the plains, and that they are at that time covered with long 

 whitish hairs. 



The species is found over a vast extent of country in central 

 North America, ranging in small herds, or rather families, along 

 the middle regions of the Stony Mountains, where they seem to 

 fill the station which the chamois does in the Alps ; mixing occa- 

 sionally with the American Argali, which occupies the summits. 

 They spread to the eastward along the banks of the Upper Mis- 

 souri, and are remarkable for prodigious fleetness : to this capa- 

 city Messrs. Lewis and Clarke bear ample testimony ; yet the 

 Indians hunt them with success. In the memoranda of a journal 

 written by Mr. Charles Le Rey, a Canadian trader, who passed 

 several years of captivity among the Siour Indians, it is stated 

 that, being with the hunters on the river Jaime in pursuit of these 



* This man had come from Nootka-Sound, and had been for some years a servant 

 to an English fur-merchant : he spoke English, and bore a singular resemblance to a 

 Chinese Tartar. 



animals, 



