102 
THE CHAMOIS. 
vember, and produce one or two kids early in tlie 
ensuing spring. They feed on the alpine pastures, 
which give a richness and flavour to their flesh, 
much esteemed as venison ; and for this purpose, 
and the skins, do the hunters ply their often peril- 
ous employment, which carries them to places of the 
wildest and most precipitous description, and adds 
to the dangers in view, the terrors of an avalanche, 
or the giving way of some chasm, concealed, but 
slightly covered. 
Few ravines, however, walled their sides, will stop 
this active animal ; it will either scale or leap them. 
“ We have seen it,” says Major Smith, “ leaping down 
a precipice, sliding first the fore legs down the steep, 
while, with the spurious hoofs of the hind feet, it held 
the edge of the rock with firmness, till the centre of 
gravity was lowered as far as possible, then bound- 
ing forward by a jerk of the body dining descent, 
turn the croup under, and alight on the hind feet 
first, with such apparent ease, that the fore feet dropp- 
ed close to the hinder, and all expression of effort 
vanished. These descents we have witnessed more 
than twelve feet, and it will not hesitate to leap 
down twenty, and even thirty.” * 
All the senses of the Chamois are extremely 
acute, and these, combined with its great agility, are 
the guards and defence from danger with which 
Providence has endowed this otherwise defenceless 
animal. The sense of smell, it is said, will enable 
• Griffith’s Cuvier, iv. 282. 
