14 
On the Chiru, or Kemas 
[Jan. 
Ill — On the Chfru ; the Kemas of Ancient Authors. 
[From Major Hamilton Smith’s Supplement to the order Ruminantia.] 
In our last number we published an account of the Chlru, by a gentleman who 
has had the advantage of drawing up his description from an acquaintance with the 
animal itself, whom he kept for some time in a state of confinement. This account 
will, doubtless, prove an acceptable present to the naturalists of Europe, and we de- 
rive much satisfaction from seeing our work selected by the author, as the medium 
of communicating his interesting observations to the public. It appears that a more 
perfect description had been formerly transmitted to the Asiatic Society through Dr 
Clarke Abel, the then Secretary to the Physical Class ; but this description it now 
appears, by some mischance, is not forthcoming. The paper in our last number will 
therefore, be the more valuable, in as much as the naturalistsof Europe appear hither- 
to to have had no certain or full account of the animal. The following extract from 
Major Hamilton Smith’s Supplement to the Order Ruminantia, in Griffith's transla 
tionof Cuvier’s Regne Animal , will show the quantum of information w hich the 
latest and best work on Natural History can furnish on the subject of the Chin, 4, 
the work m question ,s not very common, we doubt not our readers will be pleased 
to see . . If the CUru be really the same as the Kemas of JEIian, the circumstance 
will add another to the many proofs we have already, of the very extensive l 
ledge which the ancients had of Natural History. J e ' now ' 
The Cd,V„. (A. Kemas ?) The Kemas of lElian is only characterized by horns 
with the points turned forwards, a hide very thickly set with hair, and a white tail 
Naturalists viewing the direction of the points of the horns as a decisive criterion 
of groups, have mostly placed this species among the Redunca,, and considered it an 
African species, without adverting to the fact, that the quantity of hair and the 
of the tail, removed it from any known animal of this „„ V . co!our 
quarter of the globe, or even from those of Asia hitherto dcsct 'l" T’ ° ngmg *° that 
low latitude, or residing beneath high moun J^ U^thed^ aT^b"'.^ 
coat of hair ; and thus we are led to look for the Kemas of JFV peiab u nd » nt 
remote from the tropics, or whose habitat is confined to elevfe d"' am ° nS th ° Se 
consider it as still undescribed in the catalogues of nomencWtors f° n8 ’.“ d t0 
foregoing data, a late discovery in the mountains of r. J Assumn * the 
antelope in which the indications of vElian are nh • ^ ^ Asia sllews us an 
Unicorn of the Bhotias. From the ,7cZtZ^r ‘ , "* the 
inspection of the horns by a friend, we are enabled to 6 “*' * rece,ved > and tlie 
sufficiently distinct to establish it as a species .1 *77* “ notice of this animal 
to indicate its presumed affinity with the orygine Zn„ ! 7’"" ° f jEHan > and 
observation shall have confirmed or invalidated th ?’ * least untiI subsequent 
The materials from which the notice is Zl J T™*: 
the skin of a male to which the horns were at/ b CO ™' st ,n the description of 
from the want of skill or of means in the „ J ’ mutilated »nd distorted 
several horns sent from Catmandu to Calcutta F ° pr0cured *",1 also in 
tota length of the animal approaches to six feet in 1 ' lleSC 11 a PPoars, that the 
more than three feet. The horns are from twi 7 ^ at thc Mulders, is 
black, slender, annulatcd with rings, most urn nty ' 0ne '° ‘"'“tv-six inches long 
mg three-fourths up the horn, IheTest ,7 7™ the f ™”‘> and exL„d 
the crest of the frontals, parallel to the plaTof Z 7*7 ! ** seated on 
D eneral dtrection between straight and lyrate and “* base> diver g ent i 
irate, and the tips turned forward 
