THE CHAMOIS 109 



on the occasion of a formal Court chasse very painful em- 

 barrassment by tempting him to fire at and, as bad luck would 

 have it, also hit, at somewhat long range, four good bucks, 

 which at the time — of course, unknown to him — were much 

 closer to his neighbour, an exalted English personage, and 

 which bucks, to make it worse, were the only chamois the 

 latter saw during a long day's drive. The consternation of 

 the dumbfounded officials, when they discovered the result of 

 their negligence in failing to give the necessary information, 

 was lamentable to behold till the amiable prince very good- 

 naturedly made light of their awkward oversight. 



HISTORY OF THE CHAMOIS AND ITS CHASE 



Marvellous stories of the chamois's wily artfulness in 

 evading the hunter have from time immemorial been told. 

 For instance, that when cornered by its pursuers it would hang 

 itself by the crook of its horns from ledges overhanging deep 

 precipices to evade the hunter's ken. As late as forty years 

 ago, absurd nonsense was still being written about the chamois. 

 Thus an English author gravely quotes : ' The chamois hunter 

 rarely shoots his game, but drives it from crag to crag till 

 further pursuit becomes impossible, when he draws his knife 

 and puts it to the side of the chamois, and the animal pushes it 

 into its body of its own accord ! ' 



To the chamois' blood valuable medicinal qualities were 

 for many centuries ascribed, and the healing properties of the 

 famous ' Bezoar stone ' (^gagropilae) have been vaunted and 

 written about by numerous authors from Pliny to Lebwald. 

 This ball-shaped secretion, consisting of resinous fibres and hairs, 

 is occasionally found in the stomach of very old bucks, and 

 is really the result of the unnatural contraction of the muscles 

 of the stomach, which in the chamois consists of four much 

 more distinctly separated divisions than is usual with other 

 ruminants. Up to fifty years ago these stones (which occa- 

 sionally reach the size of a billiard-ball) fetched their weight in 



