1831.] 
of Ancient Authors. 
15 
the head is ten inches long, seemingly without lachrymary sinus, and without a 
moist muzzle ; the ears are short j the neck, compared with the body, very long, 
if at least this seeming disproportion be not the result of overstretching that part ; 
the fore-legs and withers are lower than the croup ; the tail is eight inches long, 
and shaped as in the Axis ; the hair of the animal is rough and very thick, but 
not quite so hard or long as in the Musk, with much of the same quill-like cha- 
racter : it conceals a fleece of fine soft wool, set very close, and pressed against 
the skin : the colour of the face and legs is dark, nearly black ; the neck, back, 
and sides, blue-gray slate colour, turning to rufous on the back ; the belly, inside 
of the thighs and tail, are whitish ; the distinctive characters of the female are 
unknown. 
We have here another instance of wool on the skin of an antilopine species ; 
a character not only perfectly consistent, but of necessity, when the animal resides 
in high latitudes, or on high mountains : thus a similar cause produces a similar 
effect upon the A. Lanigera of North America, the Chiru of Central Asia, and, 
indeed, on the Chamois of Europe. This wool is so abundant, that in the notice 
sent from Catmandu 1 * , it is described as perfectly similar to that of the Wild 
sheep of Bh6t. It is probable that the residence of this animal in the same regions, 
and sometimes in company with the Thibetan Musk, led the Arabian and Byzantine 
writers to consider it as the musk-bearing animal ; and this error was the more 
likely to occur, as they might have known the Mongolian Dzeren (A. Gutturosa), 
who is actually provided with a pouch. Of all the antilopine animals, the Chiru 
is the one which corresponds best with ./Elian’s Kemas * ; and if we consider, that 
although the species is described at present as found in Butan, the mountain 
ruminants are more likely than those of the plain to spread along the ramifications 
of central ridges as far as they can find a congenial climate, there is no reason 
to deny its former and probably present existence, even in the Caucasian range, and 
to have come within the inquiries of jElian, during the military expeditions of his 
time (that is of Alexander Severus) into the mountains of Armenia 3 * * * * 8 . The species 
might still have remained unnoticed in the elevated wildernesses of Central Asia, if 
the people of the country had not asserted it to be the Unicorn, and since the 
specimen is produced, insisted that it is often found with only one horn. No doubt 
all the Oryges are liable to break one of their horns, when we consider their 
length, small diameter, and the vigour and courageous disposition of the animals ; 
and we may infer, that the reports of Monocerotes so ancient, so general, and so 
permanent, depend solely upon these accidents ; and that the unicorn Chiru of 
Bhdt is, in all likelihood, the unicorn of the ancient Persians. 
According to the accounts of the natives, this species resides in the most inac- 
cessible pine tracts of Chandang, north-west of Digurchu, in the Himalaya moun- 
tains, on the verge of the snow, and evinces great activity and vigilance. They 
1 A MS. extract, for which I am obliged to J. E. Gray, Esq., of the British Museum. 
Although the word Kemas , Repay, appears a genuine Greek term for a young 
ruminant, the derivation seems rather far-fetched, and it is, possibly, in common 
with other Greek terms, derived from the more ancient oriental root Kem , which, 
with its mutations, signifying summit, crest, &c., extends over the old world. There 
is a curious connexion between the ancient names of the great ranges of mountains 
and of ruminants. Thus Taurus, and Taurus a bull ; Himalaya, Hemala a ram, the 
Teutonic Hamel ; Imaus, and Haemus and Kemas j Caucasus, and Ghau-cas or 
Oxridge ; Coornri, and Komri, a doubtful Hybrid of Central Africa, &c. 
8 ^Elian’s description of its swimming and residence in woods, is more appropriate 
to Asiatic than African locality. 
