HUNTING THE CHAMOIS. 47 



color, varying to blackish-brown. Its habitations are among the 

 Alps, the Pyrenees, and the lofty mountains of Asia, border Mg on 

 the regions of everlasting ice and snow. It is agreeable, lively, 

 and active beyond expression: its senses are amazingly acute, and 

 by the scent, it is said, will discover the hunter at half a league's 

 distance. They feed in flocks of nearly twenty or more ; and 

 those at the outskirts, or perhaps a single sentinel when they per- 

 ceive danger, give notice to the rest by a kind of hissing noise, 

 shrill at the beginning, and deeper towards the close, during which 

 they appear in the utmost agitation, striking the ground with their 

 fore feet, bounding from rock to rock, turning, stopping, and looking, 

 till the approach of the enemy is ascertained, when off the whole 

 fly like the wind, and defy pursuit amid the awful chasms of the 

 glaciers, on the stupendous precipices of the rocks ; for their spring 

 is astonishing, and they will throw themselves safely down an 

 almost perpendicular height of twenty or thirty feet. It drinks 

 little, and is rather fastidious in its feeding, picking out buds and 

 flowers and the tenderest of the aromatic herbs, which gives to its 

 flesh a delicious flavor. 



From the description given by M. Saussure, in his Journey on 

 the Alps, Vol. 3, no species of hunting appears to be attended 

 with more danger than this ; yet the inhabitants of Chamouni re 

 extremely addicted to it. 



The Chamois hunter generally sets out in the night, that h 

 may reach by break of day the most elevated pastures where the 

 goats come to feed, before they arrive. As soon as he discovers 

 the place where he hopes to find them, he surveys it with his 

 glass. If he finds none of them there, he proceeds, always 

 ascending : whenever he descries any, he endeavors to get above 

 them, either by stealing along some gully, or getting behind some 

 rock or eminence. When he is near enough to distinguish their 

 horns, which is the mark by which he judges of the distance, he 

 rests his piece on a rock, takes his aim with great composure, and 

 rarely misses. This piece is a rifle-barrelled carabine, into which 

 the ball is thrust, and these carabines often contain two charges. 



