328 THE HARMONIES OF NATURE. 



hindiegs, to show us how well they are adapted for throwing 

 the body forwards in a tremendous bound. Thus the lion is able 

 to make a spring of thirty feet, and the tiger leaps from a still 

 greater distance upon the deer or the antelope that comes within 

 his reach. 



The chamois and the European steinbock or ibex are like- 

 wise remarkable for their amazing dexterity and agility in leap- 

 ing, a faculty essential to their existence among the rocks and 

 precipices of their mountain homes. Without any hesitation 

 the chamois will spring over crevices sixteen or eighteen feet 

 broad, and vault over walls fourteen feet high. If, when pur- 

 sued by the huntsman, it is driven to an abyss, where a leap 

 would be inevitable destruction, it pauses for a moment, and 

 then, surmounting the fear which prompted it to fly from its 

 persecutor, suddenly turns round upon him, and retraces the 

 way by which it came. The huntsman may then esteem himself 

 fortunate if he has time to throw himself flat upon the ground, 

 or to hold fast to the rock while the chamois dashes over him. 



In the hare, which springs along in successive leaps or bounds 

 with a proverbial celerity, the hinder legs are considerably 



Skeleton of the Hare. 



longer than the fore ; and this difference is still more strongly 

 marked in the jerboa, the jumping hare of the Cape, and the 

 kangaroo, where the forefeet are so small as to take no part 



