THE CHAMOIS. 209 



loftiest ridges, ever mounting higher and higher, treading 

 with sure-footed fearlessness the narrow shelves, with pre- 

 cipices above and below, leaping lightly across yawning 

 chasms a thousand yards in depth, and climbing up the 

 slippery and perilous peaks, to stand as sentry in the 

 glittering sky. Excessively wary and suspicious, all its 

 senses seem endowed with a wonderful acuteness, so that 

 it becomes aware of the approach of the daring hunter 

 when half-a-league distant. When alarmed, it bounds 

 from ledge to ledge, seeking to gain a sight of every 

 quarter, uttering all the while its peculiar hiss of impa- 

 tience. At length it catches a glimpse, far below, of the 

 enemy wdiose scent had come up upon the breeze. Away 

 now it bounds, scaling the most terrible precipices, jump- 

 ing across the fissures, and leaping from crag to crag 

 with amazing energy. Even a perpendicular wall of rock 

 thirty feet in depth does not balk its progress : with 

 astonishing boldness it takes the leap, striking the face of 

 the rock repeatedly with its feet as it descends, both to 

 break the violence of the shock, and to direct its course 

 more accurately. Every danger is subordinate to that of 

 the proximity of man, and every faculty is in requisition 

 to the indomitable love of liberty. Hence the chamois is 

 dear to the Swiss : he is the very type of their nation ; and 

 his unconquerable freedom is the reflection of their own. 



The character of this interesting antelope, as well as that 

 of the scenery in which it dwells, are so pleasantly touched 

 in a little poem that I have lately met with, by JNIiss Crewd- 



son, that I make no apology for quoting it at length : — 







