THE KOMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



a glimpse, far below, of the enemy whose scent 

 had come up upon the breeze. Away now it 

 bounds, scaling the most terrible precipiees, jump- 

 ing across the fissures, and leaping from crag to 

 crag with amazing energy. Even a perpendicular 

 wall of rock thirty feet in depth does not balk its 

 progress: with astonishing boldness it takes the 

 leap, striking the face of the rock repeatedly with 

 its feet as it descends, both to break the violence 

 of the shock, and to direct its course more ac- 

 curately. Every danger is subordinate to that of 

 the proximity of man, and every faculty is in 

 requisition to the indomitable love of liberty. 

 Hence the chamois is dear to the Swiss : he is the 

 very type of their nation ; and his unconquerable 

 freedom is the reflection of their own. 



The character of this interesting antelope, as 

 well as that of the scenery in which it dwells, are 

 so pleasantly touched in a little poem that I have 

 lately met with, by Miss Crewdson, that I make 

 no apology for quoting it at length: — 



THE GEMZE FAWN.* 



In a sunny Alpine valley 



'Neath the snowy Wetterhorn, 

 See a maiden, by a chalet, 



Playing with a Gemze" fawn. 

 How he pricks his ears to hear her, 



How his soft eyes flash with pride, 

 As she tells him he is dearer 



Than the whole wide world beside ! 

 Dearer than the lambkins gentle, 



Dearer than the frisking kids. 

 Or the pigeon on the lintel, 



Coming— going— as she bids. 

 Dearer than the first spring lily, 



Peeping on the snowy fell ; 



* In all the German-Swiss cantons, and throughout the Tyrol, 

 the Chamois is called the "Gemze"; the other name, "Chamois," 

 prevailing only in those cantons in which French is spoken. 

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