CAPRIFORM ANTELOPES; CHAMOIS. 299 



and the limbs strong ; the horns are small or moderate ; and 

 their bodies are covered with coarse or wiry hair. The species 

 which inhabits Europe is commonly known as the Chamois Goat ; 

 it lives among the Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathian and Grecian 

 mountains, and also the ranges of Caucasus and Taurus. " Every 

 where it tenants the loftiest ridges, displaying the most aston- 

 ishing activity. During the summer, it is only to be found on 

 the mountain tops, or in sequestered rock-girt glens, where the 

 snow lies unmelted throughout the year; but in winter it 

 descends below the line of perpetual snows, to the grassy slopes, 

 where it becomes doubly cautious and wary. Its senses of 

 hearing, sight, and smell are extremely acute ; and it scentsjthe 

 approaching hunter at the distance of half a league. When its 

 fears are once excited, it bounds from rock to rock, as if to gain 

 a view of the surrounding district, uttering at the same time a 

 singular hissing sound ; but no sooner has it caught sight of its 

 enemy, than off it bounds, scaling the most fearful rocks, clearing 

 chasms, and leaping from crag to crag with amazing rapidity. 

 Its course is not stopped by a perpendicular precipice of twenty 

 or thirty feet in depth ; with astonishing boldness it takes the 

 leap, striking the face of the rock repeatedly with its feet, for 

 the purpose both of breaking its fall, and of directing itself more 

 steadily to the point it aims at. It pitches on the smallest ledge, 

 where the eye of man scarce discerns room for its foot ; and it 

 traverses with security the beetling shelf that overhangs the 

 deepest abyss. The food of the Chamois consists of mountain 

 herbs and flowers, and the tender shoots of shrubs : it seldom 

 drinks, but is extremely partial to salt ; and many stones are 

 met with in the Alps, hollowed out by the continual licking of 

 the Chamois, on account of the saltpetre with which they 

 abound. 5 '* Other Caprine Antelopes (often designated as 

 Goats) are found in Asia, the Asiatic Archipelago, and America. 

 268. We lastly proceed to the section of Bomform or Ox-like 

 Antelopes, which contains species that present various degrees of 

 relationship to the Antelopes and Oxen respectively. Some of 



* Pictorial Museum, Vol. I. p. 143. 



