ORDER RUMINANTIA. 



natives. The banks of the sources of muddy rivers, Sas- 

 kachawin and Athabasca Rivers are also inhabited by these 

 animals ; but they are said to be less numerous on the 

 eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, than upon the west- 

 ern. They are seldom or never seen at a distance from the 

 mountains, the climate and productions of which appear 

 best adapted to their nature and mode of life. In summer 

 they resort to the peaks and ridges in quest of pasture, 

 but retire to the valleys in winter. In their native regions 

 the long hair stands erect on the surface of the body, which 

 gives them a shaggy appearance, and the wool of the head 

 is so long as nearly to conceal the horns. Their flesh has a 

 musky flavour, and is at best unsavoury. They are easy of 

 access to the hunter, who seldom pursues them unless com- 

 pelled by hunger. Their fleece is esteemed of little value by 

 the traders, and is used only as a covering to the feet 

 during winter : the skin is of a remarkably thick and 

 spungy texture. It has been asserted by good judges that 

 the silky fineness of the wool is not surpassed by that of the 

 Cachmere Goat ; and it is, therefore, to be regretted, that 

 the patriotic intentions of naturalizing this animal, as ex- 

 pressed by the late Lord Selkirk, were not carried into 

 effect. 



M. Raflinesque's Mazama Dorsata, and M. Sericea ap- 

 pear to be the young and adult of this species ; the name 

 Mazama was certainly understood in a generic sense by the 

 natives of North America, and extended to animals of the 

 present family, but the greater number were deer. For 

 these reasons we applied it to a group of the genus Cervus, 

 retaining only the specific application of it to the following 

 species, which we find were designated as such by anterior 

 writers. 



The Ovine Antelope. {A. Mazama.) There is in the Lin- 

 naean Transactions, vol. xiii., a notice of this species, which 

 bears so great an affinity to the last mentioned in all the 



