102 THS 



vember, and produce one or two kids early in the 

 ensuing spring. They feed on the alpine pastures, 

 which give a richness and flavour to their flesh, 

 much esteemed as venison ; and for this purpose, 

 and the skins, do the hunters ply their often peril- 

 ous employment, which carries them to places of the 

 wildest and most precipitous description, and adds 

 to the dangers in view, the terrors of an avalanche, 

 or the giving way of some chasm, concealed, but 

 slightly covered. 



Few ravines, however, walled their sides, will stop 

 this active animal : it will either scale or leap them. 

 " We have seen it," says Major Smith, " leaping down 

 a precipice, sliding first the fore legs down the steep, 

 while, with the spurious hoofs of the hind feet, it held 

 the edge of the rock with firmness, till the centre of 

 gravity was lowered as far as possible, then bound- 

 ing forward by a jerk of the body during descent, 

 turn the croup under, and alight on the hind feet 

 first, with such apparent ease, that the fore feet dropp- 

 ed close to the hinder, and all expression of effort 

 vanished. These descents we have witnessed more 

 than twelve feet, and it will not hesitate to leap 

 down twenty, and even thirty." * 



All the senses of the Chamois are extremely 

 acute, and these, combined with its great agility, are 

 the guards and defence from danger with which 

 Providence has endowed this otherwise defenceless 

 animal. The sense of smell, it is said, will enable 

 Griffith's Cuvier, iv. 282. 



