The antelopes live in herds, and are very careful not to be surprised: so they place sentinels to watch, and give alarm. The eye, large and brilliant, is a marked feature of the tribe. The word "antelope" signifies "bright eyes."
Our picture shows us several young chamois, standing amid the crags and chasms and precipices which they delight in. A chamois can descend in two or three leaps a rock of twenty or thirty feet, without the smallest projection on which to rest.
The horns of the full-grown chamois are quite black and smooth, and formed like a perfect hook with very sharp points. These elegant creatures are the only animals of the antelope kind to be found in Western Europe. They choose for their home the loftiest mountains.
They dislike heat, and in the summer time they frequent the cold upper regions of the everlasting hills,—either the lofty peaks, or those valleys where the snow never melts. In the winter time, however, the cold of those bleak solitudes seems too much for them, spite of their long, hair and thick coat of fine wool; and they descend to the lower regions. It is then, and only then, that the hunter has any chance of capturing them.
It is said they can scent a man a mile and a half off; and their restlessness and suspicion are extreme. At the prospect of danger they are off and away, racing at an incredible speed, scaling crags with the most amazing agility, and leaving the pursuer far behind.
They are usually taken by a party of hunters, who surround the glen where they are, and advance towards each other until the herd is hemmed in on all sides.
The flesh of the antelope is like venison. No animal ought to yield sweeter meat than the chamois, when we think what he feeds upon. Mountain herbs and flowers, and tender shoots from tree and shrub—such is his food. He drinks very little, but that little is sparkling water; while the air which reddens his blood is the purest in the world.
Uncle Charles.
