On the tViU Goat of the Alps, S53 



not enlarge on thefe popular tales, but we think it neceffary 

 to refute two opinions which are very much believed among 

 naturalifts : one is, that when the wild goat or the chamois 

 is purfued by the hunter among the rocks, they return, attack 

 him, and pufh him down the precipices: this is a niiltake: 

 itfometimes happens that, if one of thefe animals is wounded, 

 it endeavours to efcape when the hunter approaches it, and, 

 as it alvvavs rulhes towards the precipices, it overturns the 

 hunter if he happens to be in its way; but it never fearches 

 for him, and, on the contrary, avoids him. It is fuid alfo 

 that the wild goat throws itfelf down precipices, falls on its 

 liorns, and rarely fuliains any injury. But I can alk-rt that 

 it always leaps from one rock to another; and that it is fo 

 expert, and fo fare of its aim, that it has never any ")ccafion 

 to throw itfelf on its horns: that if this ever happens, it is 

 by accident : and befides, it is fuflicient to look at ihe animal 

 to be convinced that it could not take fuch leaps with im- 

 punity. If has a long body, its legs are (liort, its limbs are 

 thick, and it weighs nearly 200 pounds : how, then, is it 

 poflible that it (hould throw itielf from the rocks without 

 ijeing torn by their (harp points, or daflied to pieces by its 

 fall ? I have been more particular in regard to this ta«Sb, be- 

 caufe the lame error is not only related by molt naturaliils, 

 but is received alfo among the Tartars*, who are hunters 

 of wild goats, like the people of the Valais of Swiflerlandj 

 and becaufe this conformity of ojiinion among people fo di- 

 ftant might induce lome to believe in the reality of the h&.. 

 But is it'not well known that the lame prejudices are found 

 among different nations ? Ignorance is every where the fame, 

 and every where the fame objects have given rile to the like 

 errors. Thofe naluralirts who are fo fond of final caufes, 

 wifliing to give utility to the large horns of the wild goat, 

 Jiave adoptetl this opinion; and it is thus that the mania of 

 wifhine: to explain every thing iniures the caufe of truth, and 

 otien perpetuates popular talcs. iVI. Pallas, deceived by the 

 accounts c-f the Tartars, mentions, as a proof of tliis afler- 

 tion, a wild goat which he faw having one of its horns 

 brokevit: but this, in all probability, was owing t^i another 

 caufe. Their large, thick, and alnioli ulcltfs horns«re often 

 broken by the. tumbling down of the rocks ; and on thcfe 

 occafions ihey are often killed themfclvcs. for this rcaloii, 

 the inhabitants of C-jru'-ajor travtrfe ilie bottoms of the 

 mountains to collcft the horns carried down by the fnc*U'. 

 M. i\illas fays, alfo, that the wild goat is of fo'favngc a na- 



• PilUi Si'icil. 2ooJ. fuv;. \\- \>- 50- 

 t Spjcil. Zocl. 



lurs 



