92 SPEED AND AGILITY. 



are sometimes astonishing for so small an 

 animal. On a gentle slope, I have seen 

 them clear a space of more than sixty feet at 

 a single bound, for several successive leaps, 

 and spring over bushes of considerable 

 height at the same time. They are very 

 sure-footed, and although a forest animal, 

 in travelling over rocky and precipitous 

 ground, have perhaps no equal. Where 

 even the burrell is obliged to move slowly 

 and carefully, the musk-deer bounds quickly 

 and fearlessly ; and although I have often 

 driven them on to rocks which I thought 

 it impossible they could cross, they 

 have invariably found a way in some 

 direction, and I never knew an mstance 

 of one missing its footing, or falling, unless 

 wounded. 



They eat but little compared to other 

 ruminating animals, at least one would 

 imagine so from the small quantity found 

 in their stomachs, the contents of which are 

 always in such a pulpy state, that it is 

 impossible to tell what food they prefer. I 



