180

THE ALPINE REGIONS.

circular curvature towards the back, while his, turning overabruptly, form rather a hook.”

The chamois feed on various mountain herbs, and on thebuds and sprouts of the rhododendron and latschen (Firmspumilio). During the night they couch among the brokenrocks high upon the mountains, descending at day-break topasture, and retreating, as the heat increases, towards theirfastnesses. They are very fond of salt, and greedily lick anysaline efflorescence from the rocks. In the winter season theyare forced down to the higher forests, where they pick up ascanty subsistence from moss, dead leaves, and the fibrouslichen, which hangs in long yellowish -grey tufts from the firs,and bears the name of ‘chamois-beard.’ While browsing onthis, they sometimes get their horns hooked on a bough, andso, being unable to disentangle themselves, perish withhunger. I have indeed heard of an instance of the dead bodyof a chamois being found suspended by the horns from a pro-jecting ledge of rock, with its feet just touching the ground,which apparently had perished in the same way. I have alsobeen told, on the authority of a chasseur in the Yal d’ Aoste ,that sometimes, when they have retreated during a snow-stormunder a fir-tree for shelter or for food, the branches, bendingdown under the weight of snow, enclose them on all sides; andbeing imprisoned in this snowy wigwam, they are starved todeath, instinct not teaching them how to escape When springreturns, their bodies are found, sometimes three or four to-gether, at the foot of the tree. Owing probably to the resincontained in so much of their food, and its fibrous character,a hard, dark-coloured ball, from the size of a walnut to that ofan egg, of a bitter taste, but pleasant odour, is often found intheir stomachs. This is called Bezoar, and it was ancientlysupposed to cure all evils, and be a protection even againstmusket-shots. A sceptical age has, I fear, expelled it from thepharmacopoeia.