72 MOUNTAIN AND MOORLAND 



hair, chestnut-brown in winter, greyish in spring, and 

 underneath this an under coat of grey wool, a valu- 

 able protection against the cold; (2) the hoofs have 

 their outer edges higher than the soles, and this gives 

 the feet a great grip of the rocks a grip that helps us 

 to understand how the Chamois pull themselves up 

 after a big leap and how they find a foothold on what 

 seem to be inaccessible crags. In summer the 

 Chamois go far up the Alps to near the line of per- 

 petual snow, and they frequent tracts of mountain 

 with a northern exposure, partly to avoid the glare of 

 the sun and partly to escape the battery of falling 

 stones which the summer sun often sets loose. In 

 winter they keep to lesser heights. As to the Alpine 

 Ibex (Capra ibex), a wild goat that ascends to heights 

 even higher than those which the Chamois frequents, 

 a wary, gregarious creature with splendid horns 

 about two feet long, one regrets to learn that it has 

 been hunted almost to the limit of extermination. 



Of great interest among Mountain Mammals is the 

 Snow Mouse, or, accurately, Snow Vole (Microtus 

 nivalis), of the high Alps. It is a little creature, about 

 five inches long in body and two in tail, somewhat 

 variable in colouring but usually rusty-grey or 

 whitish-grey, and with the tail sometimes white. Per- 

 haps there is no other mammal that lives so hard a 

 life, for it is rare below 4,000 feet unless there is a 

 climber's or goatherd's hut to pillage, and it ascends 

 from the snow-line, where it is most abundant, to the 

 summit of the mountains. Unlike many of its 

 kindred, it does not migrate in hard times, but keeps 

 doggedly to its lofty retreats, and even in midwinter 

 it may be seen scampering over the snow. Unlike 



