THE CHAMOIS. 99 



with a quick spring will bring up its hind quarters 

 to a level with the rest of the body, and, with all four 

 hoofs close together, stand poised on a point of rock 

 not broader than your hand. On narrow overhanging 

 ledges some thousand feet high they walk and gaze 

 about, enjoying the security from pursuit which such 

 spots afford. 



But astonishing as their dexterity really is, much 

 has been related of them that has no foundation in 

 fact, any more than the tale of their placing sentinels 

 to announce when danger is near. Indeed there is 

 something very strange in the imperfect information 

 obtained about the chamois, and the marvellous stories 

 related of it, and of those who went in its pursuit. 

 That this should have been the case for a time is very 

 natural, especially in places remote from where the 

 chamois was to be found. I conceive too that even 

 later, and where men dwelt who followed the chase, 

 there still hung about the chamois-hunter's life some- 

 what of mystery. We can well imagine that he was 

 looked upon as one familiar with places where ordi- 

 nary men would fear to venture, accustomed to have 

 Death stalking beside him as a companion, and to 

 meet him face to face. His departure for the moun- 

 tain an unknown region hidden in cloud, and mist, 

 and mystery, his absence for whole days together, 

 his startling accounts of the wildness, the silence and 

 the solitude, and then occasionally the going forth of 

 one alone who never returned, all this gave a dim 

 and dread uncertainty to the pursuit ; and where un- 



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