THROUGH EUROPE AND TO THE ISLANDS OE THE ATLANTIC. 155 
to Northern Scandinavia, Prussia in Europe, Greenland, with 
Labrador and Canadian Territory in the New World ; yet at 
one time it spread over the greater part of Europe including 
the British Isles.' Its remains are especially abundant in 
Ireland, and it lived along the northern foot of the Alps and 
of the Pyrenees. It seems not improbable that its presence so 
far south was due to the advancing cold of the Glacial period, 
and that with the return of warmer conditions it followed 
northwards the retreating ice and snow of a milder climate. 
The reindeer is the only member of its tribe which is utilized as of 
service to man for drawing a sleigh or for similar useful purposes. 
The Chamois ( Rupicu'pra tragus ). — We turn with pleasure 
from considering the case of the obedient and unhappy reindeer 
to that of the graceful and lively chamois of the Alps, the 
Pyrenees and the Caucasus. We are all familiar with this 
inhabitant of mountains from preserved specimens, pictures, or 
the admirable imitations in wood-carvings bv the Swiss crafts- 
men. But few ever see a chamois alive amongst its native 
rocks and precipices. It is the shyest of animals, and long 
before you can get a sight of it the wary chamois lias espied 
you, and is off at full speed out of sight. It was my good 
fortune when visiting the mountains of Lucerne in 1904 to get 
a view with my binocular of a group of chamois standing on 
the edge of a precipice a thousand feet high and quite out of 
range of a rifle — if I had happened to be a jager, which I was 
not. I considered myself lucky to get a sight of the animals 
even at thii distance. The occasion reminded me of another, 
when, some years previously, while ascending the gorge leading 
to Petra from the Wady el Arabah, on looking up to the crest 
of the cliff, I beheld three ibexes standing in a row and 
gazing down on our party, while a bear was scrambling up to 
the same position of security, a little distance off, and sending 
the stones, which gave way under its paws, rattling down the 
cliff. Ultimately bruin succeeded in reaching the same sky- 
line, and turning round, scrutinised our party, wagging its 
head from side to side as is the manner of bears. The antics of 
the bear were not, however, observed by the ibexes, as there 
was a high rock intervening between them, otherwise the 
ibexes would doubtless have rapidly increased their distance 
from the bear, and have given bruin a wide berth. I need 
scarcely say that I allude to the ibex because it is the represen- 
tative of the chamois, both in its form, and conditions of life, 
amongst the mountains of Arabia Petrsea. In a word, the 
ibex is first cousin to the chamois, and he is the “ wild goat ” 
