and the chamois after the female; and that this has produced a variety in these animals, even before they underwent human cultivation.

However this be, the two animals in question seem both well fitted for their precarious life, being extremely swift, and capable of running with ease along the ledges of precipices, where even the wolf or the fox, though instigated by hunger, dares not pursue them. They are both natives of the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the mountains of Greece; there they propagate in vast numbers, and continue to exist in spite of the hunter and every beast of prey that is found incessantly to pursue them.

The ibex resembles the goat in the shape of its body; but differs in the horns, which are much larger: they are bent backward, full of knots; and it is geneprobably found in the highest mountains of eastern Persia.

* THE IBEX.-The goats are not numerous in species; in Europe the ibex is the most celebrated. It is an animal near five feet long, two feet eight inches in height at the shoulder, with about two inches more at the rump. In its first year, the ibex is of a light ashy-gray colour, deepening to brown as it advances in age; and in the adult, varies from a red brown in summer, to a gray brown in winter. The ibex ruts in autumn; the male then emitting a most powerful smell, assembles the females, and remains with them till spring; when the females begin to withdraw into cover, for the purposes of par. turition, which takes place in one hundred and sixty days after impregnation, usually in April; the kids following the mother in a few hours after their birth. The species seems to be confined to the highest mountains of Europe, the Alps, particularly the Rhætian and the Pyrenees, with their loftiest branches. They prefer the most elevated ridges, upon and near the verge of perpetual snow, which they invariably seek when pursued. In Savoy and Switzerland they are now rarer than in the Tyrol, and in the Pyrenees they are nearly extinct.

THE EGAGRUS is another species distinguished from the former by the horns forming an acute angle in front, with the ribs less broad, assuming an undulating edge, and the posterior part rounded. It is found in the Caucasian mountains, and in still greater abundance in Asia Minor. Pallas first clearly distinguished it from its congeners, and conjectured that the domestic goats might derive from the stock.

CUVIER'S ANIMAL KINGDOM.

The engraving

GOAT OF CACHEMIRE. of the Cachemire Goat is taken from the fine work of F. Cuvier and G. St. Hilaire, on mammiferous animals. The specimen, in the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, of which that work contains a portrait, was sent from Calcutta, having been obtained from the menagerie of the governor-general of India, where it was born of a couple that came direct from Cachemire to Bengal. The wool of this goat appears, by a scrupulous comparison, to be quite as delicate as the finest brought from Thibet. Cachemire, however, contains several breeds of goats with fine wool; a specimen was recently sent to England, which differed from that in France by having longer ears. But they all yield, ap

THE ABYSSINIAN IBEX is somewhat more elevated on the legs than the European, of a dirty, brownish, fawn colour, with a short beard, and lengthened hair under the throat down to the breast. This species is nume-parently, the same produce; for the fineness rous in the mountain of Abyssinia and of of the wool is occasioned by the influence of Upper Egypt. the climate.

THE CAUCASIAN IBEX.-M. Guldenstadt first described this species, which he discovered in the northern part of the Caucasian mountains. In size and proportions, it resembles the ibex of Europe, but is broader and shorter in the body; dark-brown on the superior parts, and white on the inferior. The hair of this species is hard, more ashy in winter, and at the root interspersed with much grayish underwool. This species of ibex is equal, if not superior, in strength and agility, to the Alpine, making immense bounds with the utmost confidence. Monardes relates that he saw an ibex leap from the top of a tower, and falling on its horns, immediately spring up and move on, without having received the slighest injury. It resides in the Caucasian mountains, and is

There are two sorts of hair which nature seems to have furnished, more or less, to every quadruped: the one fine, curly, gene. rally gray, and imparting to the skin a down more or less thick, as if to guard it against cold and damp; the other coarse, flat, giving a general colour to the animal, and appearing in numerous instances to be an organ of sensation. These two sorts of hair generally become thicker, according to the degree of cold to which they are exposed; and the frizzled hair becomes gradually finer as the cold increases in dryness. It is this friz zled hair of the Cachemire goat which renders these animals so valuable; for to this we owe those delicate shawls which are so deservedly esteemed for a variety of qua lities found in no other article of clothing,

rally asserted that there is a knot added every year. There are some of these found, if we may believe Bellonius, at least two yards long. The ibex has a large, black beard, is of a brown colour, with a thick, warm coat of hair. There is a streak of black runs along the top of the back; and the belly and back of the thighs are of a fawn colour

ANIMALS OF THE ANTELOPE KIND.*

The chamois, (g) though a wild animal, is very easily tamed, and docile; and to be found only in rocky and mountainous places. It is about the size of a

(g) M. Peroud's account, as quoted by Buffon.

domestic goat, and resembles one in many respects. It is most agreeably lively, and active beyond expression. The chamois' hair is short, like that of the doe; in spring it is of an ash colour, in autumn a dun colour, inclining to black, and in winter of a blackish brown. This animal is found in great plenty in the mountains of Dauphiny, of Piedmont, Savoy, Switzerland, and Germany. They are peaceful, gentle creatures, and live in society with each other. They are found in flocks of from four to fourscore, and even a hundred, dispersed upon the crags of the mountains. The large males are seen feeding detached from the rest-except in rutting time, when they approach the females, and drive away the young. The time of their coupling is from the beginning of November to the end of October; and they bring forth in April and March. The young keeps with the dam for about five months, and sometimes longer, if the hunters and the wolves do not separate them. It is asserted that they live between twenty and thirty years. Their flesh is good to eat; and they are found to have ten or twelve pounds of suet, which far surpasses that of the goat in hardness and goodness. The chamois has scarce any cry, as most animals are known to have; if it has any, it is a kind of feeble bleat, by which the parent calls its young. But in cases of danger, and when it is to warn the rest of the flock, it uses a hissing noise, which is heard at a great distance; for it is to be observed, that this creature is extremely vigilant, and has an eye the quickest and most piercing in nature; its smell also is not less distinguishing. When it sees its enemy distinctly, it stops for a moment; and then, if the person be near, in an instant after it flies off. In the same manner, by its smell, it can discover a man at half a league distance, and gives the earliest notice. Upon any alarm, therefore, or any apprehensions of danger, the chamois begins his bissing note with such force, that the rocks and the forests re-echo to the sound. The first hiss continues as long as the time of one inspiration. In the beginning it is very sharp, and deeper towards the close. The animal having, after this first alarm, reposed a moment, again looks round, and, perceiving the reality of its fears, continues to hiss by intervals, until it has spread the alarm to a very great distance. During this time, it seems in the most violent agitation: it strikes the ground with its fore foot, and sometimes with both; it hounds from rock to rock; it turns and looks round; it runs to the edge of the precipice; and, still perceiving the enemy, flies with all its speed. The chamois feeds upon the best herbage, and chooses the most delicate parts of the plants, the flower, and the tender buds. It is not less delicate with regard to several aromatic herbs, which grow upon the sides of the mountains. It drinks but very little while it feeds upon the succulent herbage, and chews the cud in the intervals of feeding. This animal is greatly admired for the beauty of its eyes, which are round and sparkling, and which mark the warmth of its constitution.

theme of Arabian and Persian poetical enthusiasm. The very name Gazelle, by which several of the genus are designated, is derived from the Arabic Gazal, signifying this animal, or a young fawn, is also an image of peculiarly tender and delicate women. It is likewise applied to a species of stanza, of a highly polished and tender versification, as the Gazels or Odes of Hafiz, for a translation of one of which, by the Editor of this volume, see Mirror, vol. xxii.: the root, how ever, seems taken from the Hindu Sasi, or Sasin, the name of the common antelope. It appears, that in the beautiful regions of the East, beyond the river Indus, these animals have attracted the notice of mankind in an extraordinary degree, even in the primitive ages of that land of early civilization; for we

find them in the oldest mythologies, and among the symbols of its astronomy. The Sasin figures in the Rasi Chakra, or Hindu Zodiac, instead of Capricorn, the goddess Chandra, or the Moon, rides upon an Antelope, and Mahadeva Pancha Mukti holds one of these animals by the legs. In the Institutes of Menu, certainly more ancient than the Macedonian invasion, we find that under certain circumstances, the Brahmins were not only allowed, but directed to be fed on the flesh of the Ena, or spotted Antelope. From these causes, the whole genus is held sacred to Chandra, or the Moon; but it may be surmised that this consecration was originally confined to some species, perhaps still undescribed, whose horns exhibited a sort of resemblance to a crescent.-ED.

They go to pasture both morning and evening, and seldom during the heat of

the day. They run along the rocks with great ease and seeming indifference, and leap from one to another, so that no dogs are able to pursue them. There is nothing more extraordinary than to see them climbing and descending precipices, that to all other quadrupeds are inaccessible. They always mount or descend in an oblique direction; and throw themselves down a rock of thirty feet, and alight with great security upon some excrescence

or fragment, on the side of the precipice, which is just large enough to place their feet upon; they strike the rock, however, in their descent, with their feet, three or four times, to stop the velocity of their motion; and when they have got upon their base below, they at once seem fixed and secure.

During the rigours of winter, the chamois sleeps in the thicker forests, and feeds upon the shrubs and the buds of the pine-tree. It sometimes turns up the snow with its foot to look for herbage; and, where it is green, makes a delicious repast. The more craggy and uneven the forest, the more this animal is pleased with the abode, which thus adds to its security. The hunting the chamois is very laborious, and extremely difficult. The most usual 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 vast way upon his belly, in silence, and take also the advantage of the wind, which if it blow from him they would instantly perceive. When arrived at a proper distance, he then advances his piece, which is to be rifle-barrelled, and to carry one ball, and tries bis fortune among them. Some also pursue this animal as they do the stag, by placing proper persons at all the passages of a glade, or valley, and then sending in others to rouse the game. Dogs are quite useless in this chase, as they rather alarm than overtake. Nor is it without danger even to the men; for it often happens that when the animal finds itself overpressed, it drives at the hunters with its head, and often tumbles them down the neighbouring precipice. This animal cannot go upon ice when smooth; but if there be the least inequalities on its surface, it then bounds along in security, and quickly evades all pursuit.* CHAMOIS HUNTERS OF THE ALPS.-These is often double-barrelled. If the chamois men are remarkable examples of what may be accomplished by courage, perseverance, and constant experiment. The chamois hunter sets out on his expedition of fatigue and danger, generally in the night. His object is to find himself at the break of day in the most elevated pastures, where the chamois comes to feed before the flocks shall have arrived there. The chamois feeds only at morning and in the evening. When the hunter has nearly reached the spot where he expects to find his quarry, he réconnoitres with a telescope. If he finds not the chamois, he mounts still higher; but if he discover him, he endeavours to climb above him, and to get nearer, by passing round some ravine, or gliding behind some eminence or rock. When he is near enough to distinguish the horns of the animals, he rests his rifle upon a rock, and takes his aim with great coolness. He rarely misses. The rifle

fall he runs to his prey, makes sure of him by cutting the ham-strings, and applies himself to consider by what way he may best regain the village. If the route be difficult, he contents himself with skinning the chamois; but if the way be at all practicable with a load, he throws the animal over his shoulder, and bears it home to his family, undaunted by the distance he has to go, and the precipices he has to cross. But when, as is more frequently the case, the vigilant animal perceives the hunter, he flies with the greatest swiftness into the glaciers, leaping with incredible speed over the frozen snows and pointed rocks. It is particularly difficult to approach the chamois when there are many together. While the herd graze, one of them is planted as sentinel on the point of some rock which commands all the avenues of the pasturage; and when he perceives an object of alarm, he makes a sharp, hissing noise, at the sound of

The skin of the chamois was once famous, when tanned, for its softness and warmth; at present, however, since the art of tanning has been brought to greater perfection, the leather called shammoy is made also from those of the tame goat, the sheep and the deer.

Such are the quadrupeds that more peculiarly belong to the goat kind. Each of these, in all probability, can engender and breed with the other; and were the whole race extinguished, except any two, these would be sufficient to re