250 



ANIMALS OF THE 



hind the clefts of the rocks arid shoot them. 

 This, however, must be done with great pre- 

 caution ; the sportsman must creep for a vast 

 way upon his belly, in silence, and take also 

 the advantage of the wind, which if it blow 

 from him they would instantly perceive. 

 When arrived at a proper distance, he then 

 advances his piece, which is to be rifle-bar- 

 relled, and to carry one ball, and tries his 

 fortune among them. Some also pursue this 

 animal, as they do the stag, by placing proper 

 persons at all the passages of a glade orvalley, 

 and then sending in others to rouze the game. 

 Dogs are quite useless in this chase, as they 

 rather alarm than overtake. Nor is it with- 

 out danger even to the men ; for it often hap- 

 pens that when the animal finds itself over- 

 pressed, it drives at the hunter with its head, 

 and often tumbles him down to the neigh- 

 bouring precipice. This animal cannot go 

 upon ice when smooth; but if there be the least 

 inequalities on its surface, it then bounds along 

 in security, and quickly evades all pursuit. 



The skin of the shammoy was once famous, 

 when tanned, for its softness and warmth; at 

 present, however, since the art of tanning has 

 been brought to greater perfection, the leather 

 called shammoy is made also from those of the 

 tame goat, the sheep, and the deer. Many 

 medicinal virtues also were said to reside in 

 the blood, fat, gall, and the concretion some- 

 times found in the stomach of this animal, 

 called the German bezoar. The fat, mixed 

 with milk, was said to be good in ulcers of 

 the lungs. The gall was said to be useful in 

 strengthening the sight ; the stone, which is 

 generally about the size of a walnut, and 

 blackisli, was formerly in great request for 

 having the same virtues with oriental bezoar. 

 However, in the present enlightened state of 

 physic, all these medicines are quite out of 

 repute ; and although we have the names of 

 several medicines procurable from quadru- 



Feds, yet, except the musk or hartshorn alone, 

 know of none in any degree of reputation. 

 It is true, the fat, the urine, the beak, and 

 even the dung of various animals, may be 

 found efficacious, where better remedies are 

 not to be had ; but they are far surpassed by 

 many at present in use, whose operations we 

 know, and whose virtues are confirmed by 

 repeated experience. 



Such are the quadrupeds that more pecu- 

 liarly belong to the goat kind. Each of 'these, 

 in all probability, can engender and breed 

 with the other; and were the whole race ex- 

 tinguished, except any two, these would be 

 sufficient to replenish the world, and continue 

 the kind. Nature, however, proceeds in her 

 variations by slow and insensible degrees, 

 and scarce draws a firm, distinguished line 

 between any two neighbouring races of ani- 

 mals whatsoever. Thus it is hard to discover 

 where the sheep ends, and the goat begins ; 

 and we shall find it still harder to fix precise- 

 ly the boundaries between the goat kind and 

 the deer. In all transactions from one kind 

 to the other, there are found to be a middle 

 race of animals, that seem to partake of the 

 nature of both, and that can precisely be re- 

 ferred to neither. That race of quadrupeds, 

 called the gazelles, are of this kind ; they are 

 properly neither goat nor deer, arid yet they 

 have many of the marks of both ; they make 

 the shade between these two kinds, and fill 

 up the chasm in nature. 



THE GAZELLES, 



THE Gazelles, of which there are several 

 kinds, can, with propriety, be referred neither 

 to the goat nor the deer; and yet they par- 

 take of both natures. Like the goat, they 

 have hollow horns that never fall, which is 

 otherwise in the deer. They have a gall- 

 bladder, which is found in the goat and not 

 in the deer; and, like that animal, they feed 

 rather upon shrubs than grassy pasture. On 

 the other hand, they resemble the roebuck 

 in size and delicacy of form; they have deep 

 pits under the eyes like that animal; they 

 resemble the roebuck in the colour and 

 nature of their hair; they resemble him in 

 the bunches upon their logs, which only difFer 

 in being upon the fore-legs in these, and on 

 the hind-legs in the other. They seem there- 

 fore, to be of a middle nature between these 

 two kinds ; or, to speak with greater truth 

 and precision, they form a distinct kind by 

 themselves. 



The distinguishing marks of this tribe of 

 animals, by which they differ both from the 

 goat and the deer, are these: their horns are 



