74 HISTORY OF QUADRUPEDS 



of a whitifti-yellow, which never changes. The horns 

 of the female are lefs, and not fo much bent : The na- 

 tives have been known to bleed cattle with them. 



Thefe animals are fo much incommoded by heat, that 

 they are never found in fummer, except in the caverns 

 of rocks, amidft fragments of unmelted ice, under the 

 made of high and fpreading trees, or of rough and hang- 

 ing precipices, that face the North, and keep off entirely 

 the rays of the fun. They go to paliure both morning 

 and evening, and feldom during the heat of the day. 

 They run along the rocks with great eafe and feeming 

 indifference, and leap from one to another, fo that no 

 dogs are able to purfue them. Nothing can be more ex- 

 traordinary than the facility with which they climb and 

 defcend precipices, that, to all other quadrupeds, are in- 

 acceflible : They always mount or defcend in an oblique 

 direction, and throw themfelves down a rock of thirty 

 feet, and light with great fecurity upon fome excrefcence 

 or fragment, on the fide of the precipice, which is juft 

 large enough to place their feet upon : They ftrike the 

 rock, however, in their defcent, with their feet, three or 

 four times, to Hop the velocity of their motion ; and, 

 when they have got upon the bafe below, they at once 

 feem fixed and fecure. In fact, to fee them jump in this 

 manner, they feem rather to have wings than legs. Cer- 

 tain it is that their legs are formed for this arduous em- 

 ployment; the hind being rather longer than the fore 

 legs, and bending in fuch a manner, that, when they de- 

 fcend upon them, they break the force of the fall. 



During the rigours of winter, the Chamois fleeps in 

 the thicker forefts, and feeds upon the fhrubs and the 

 buds of the pine-tree. 



The hunting the Chamois is very laborious, and ex- 



