THE CHAMOIS GOAT. 



approaching, which he cannot immediately fee, he whiffles or hilTes with 

 fuch force, that the neighbouring rocks reverberate the found, and the Goats 

 are warned to feek their fafety in inftant flight. He then Hops for a moment, 

 in order to look around him, and afterwards refumes his friendly intimation, 

 linking the ground with his feet, and leaping impatiently from one eminence 

 to another, till the confirmation of his fears induces him to elude purfuit by 

 an exertion of his natural fpeed. 



The whittling or hilling, here alluded to, is purely nafal, and is in reality 

 no other than a lirong breath exhaled, with great violence, through a fmall 

 aperture. It is ufed exclufively as a fignal of danger, the voice of the 

 Chamois at all other times being confined to a gentle bleating. 



Thefe animals, whofe agility and vivacity are equally interesting, are of 

 a focial difpofition, and generally appear in little parties of from three to 

 twenty, though probably lixty or a hundred individuals occupy the declivity 

 of the fame mountain. 



The large males ufually feed at a diftance from the others, except in the 

 months of October and November, when they join the females, and beat 

 away the young. Their ardour is then excefiive, and they bleat frequently, 

 as they traverfe their native rocks with altonilhing rapidity. The feafon of 

 parturition is in March and April, when the females bring forth one, and 

 occafionally two at a time. The young ones remain with their dams for 

 about five months, and, if not deltroyed by the voracity of the wolves, or 

 the llratagems of the hunters, they will live to the age of twenty or even 

 thirty years. Their blood is laid to polfefs fome medicinal virtues, like that 

 of the wild Goat, and is confequently an object of importance to the hunters. 

 The horns are ufed for the heads of canes. Thofe of the females are fmaller 

 and lefs hooked than the others. The fkins, when dreifed, are nervous, 

 lirong, and fupple, and were formerly ufed for gloves, veils, and other 

 articles of raiment ; but, fince the art of tanning has arrived to fo great 

 perfection, the leather denominated Jhammoy is alfo made from the fkins of 

 the domeltic Goat, the Deer, and the Sheep. The flelh of the Chamois is 

 accounted excellent, and one of thefe animals will fometimes yield from ten 



