jiATn,!] THE CHAMOIS AT HOME 367 



They can read danger signals as well as the most expert moun- 

 taineer and they qtiickly resoond to new situations and dangers. 



Though extremely shy of man and avoiding him like a pesti- 

 lence they will at times when cornered nm up to his very nose and 

 jtmip over his head before he has even time to fire at them. And 

 they lose no time in deciding a case. They return the moment 

 they realize that they have entered a blind valley. There is no 

 aimless running aroimd, no waste of time, no trying to get out by 

 some impossible way. One cannot but marvel at their quick 

 flashlike decisions. 



I once watched four such animals enter a very narrow pass 

 hemmed in by two rock walls and giving into a broad expanse 

 beyond which, however, upon subsequent examination proved to 

 be without any exit being hemmed in by almost perpendicular walls. 

 The chamois stopped the moment they got a full sight of the situa- 

 tion, wheeled around and passed within lo ft. of me, I being in full 

 sight. 



I know of no picture more charming than chamois at play. To 

 witness it is worth a lot of effort ; they behave for all the world like 

 acrobats and tumble over and over in sheer joy and happiness. 

 I rem.ember but one such case that I had a chance to witness and 

 that was many years ago. It was in the upper parts of the Swiss 

 Alps well above the timber line, we came upon two of them quite 

 unexpectedly and they failed to see us. thanks to our position. 

 We were some 300 ft. almost perpendicularly above them looking 

 down over the horse-shoe shaped moimtain ridge which surrounded 

 the glacier below, upon which they were playing. 



This icefield was almost level though somewhat inclined. Its 

 lower extremity dropped off quite suddenly and formed a sheer 

 wall of many himdred feet. Their play consisted in what you 

 might call a race ended by two or three sommersaults and was 

 repeated over and over again. 



The animals would begin by frolicking up to the farthest end of 

 the icefield, plavnng, teasing each other as they went along, arrived 

 at the rockwall, they would turn around, face downward and at a 

 given moment run down at a tremendous speed, thus nearing the 

 lower end at a very appalling race. At the moment, however when 

 you thought that they would dart down over the abyss they sud- 

 denly turned their performance by a complete sommersault land- 

 ing squarely on their feet and coming to an abrupt and complete 



