366 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [15:9— Dec, 1919 



few more jumps and it reached the base of the knoll upon which we 

 were watching and slowly left our field of observation. Just how 

 it managed to pass from the ice to the mountains is still a riddle to 

 me, for we had spent fully two hours doing that same trick and had 

 to use our ice-axes and ropes very liberally for the chasm between 

 the glacier and the mountain was more than 35 ft. in width and 

 unusually deep. I regretted that our position behind the knoll did 

 not bring that part within our vision. 



The chamois reappeared about two minutes later at the very 

 brow of our knoll not more than 300 feet below us. I don't think 

 it had seen us yet, nevertheless it stopped short all of a sudden, 

 stretched its neck full length, took a sniff of the air, gave a loud 

 whistle, stamped with its feet, wheeled around, raced down the 

 knoll in a westerly direction, hence exposed to our view, boimced 

 over to the icefield and in some 1 5 minutes disappeared among the 

 snow covered peaks of the western mountain range. 



The chamois is the only representative of the antelopes found in 

 central and middle Europe. It is readily distinguished from all 

 others by the short and cylindrical black horns, rising for a con- 

 siderable distance vertically from the forehead and then bending 

 sharply backward and downward in a hookUke manner. The 

 chamois is goatlike in appearance but much fleeter and more 

 graceful in its movements. 



The color of the chamois in winter is a chestnut brown, white or 

 pale in the face with the exception of two black stripes from below 

 the eye to the comer of the mouth. The horns are of a beautiful 

 black and marked with transverse rings and longitudinal striations. 

 The weight of the animal is upwards of a hundred lbs. Its habits 

 seem to be similar to those of the Rocky Mountain sheep. The 

 chamois are wonderful climbers and live in the highest Alpine 

 ranges, though one kind, a heavier and more massive animal dwells 

 within the timber line. 



Nobody coiild, without seeing the chamois in its wild state, get 

 an adequate conception of its extreme agility and nimbleness. 

 The chamois of the Zoo does in no way give a truthful impression in 

 this respect. To appreciate these points one has to see them in 

 their wild state rushing down some almost perpendicular mountain- 

 side or crossing gullies, s*^reams, or chasms. They seem to be bom 

 for the mountains and made for these wild and desolate regions. 

 And they know the dangers of the icefield and the falling icemasses. 



