40 
WILD GOAT. 
with their fore feet, frequently thawing it with 
their breath for the purpose of loosening it more 
easily. 
The hunting of the chamois is both laborious and 
difficult. The common way is to hide behind the 
clefts of the rocks and shoot them. This however 
must be done with great precaution ; the sportsman 
must creep for a considerable way upon his belly, 
in silence, and be very particular with regard to the 
wind, which should not blow from him, lest they 
should detect the hunter by the smell. When he 
arrives at a proper distance, he advances his rifle- 
barrelled piece, loaded with a single ball, and tries 
his fortune among them. The chamois are occa- 
sionally pursued, by placing proper persons at all 
the passages of a valley, and then sending in others 
to rouse them. We are assured that dogs are ra- 
ther prejudicial than useful in this chase, as they 
only serve to alarm the game without being able to 
overtake it. This employment is not without dan- 
ger even to the men ; for it sometimes happens, 
that the animal, when he finds himself overpressed, 
will drive at the hunter with his head, and tumble 
him down the neighbouring precipice. 
A chasseur will kill from six to fifteen chamois 
in a year: with the flesh, which is very delicate, 
he helps to support his family, and disposes of each 
skin for a guinea. In this manner, even in the 
wildest solitudes, the poor have their comforts ; and 
in these mountainous retreats, where the landscape 
