and the Caucasus. On inaccessible cliffs and rocky crags
these graceful mountaineers make their home, and except when disturbed
by the approach of man, lead a peaceful and harmless life. The chamois
resembles the wild goat of the Alps, but is more elastic and spry. It is
especially distinguished from it by the absence of beard, and by its
black glistening horns, which are curved like a hook and pointed.

In the spring the chamois is very light-colored, but as summer advances,
its coat assumes a reddish-brown hue, which by December often becomes
coal black. Its eyes are large, black, and full of intelligence, and its
delicate hoofs are surrounded by a projecting rim which renders it
firm-footed and able to march with ease over the great glaciers or along
narrow ledges of rock.

These pretty animals live in herds, five, ten, and sometimes twenty
together. They are merry, wise creatures, graceful and agile in their
movements, and spring from cliff to cliff and across chasms with
extraordinary lightness and sureness of foot.

In the winter the chamois seek the upper forests on the mountain slopes,
where, under the shelter of the widely branching umbrella fir, the
drooping boughs of which hang almost to the ground, they find snug
quarters, and long dry grass for winter provender.

The opening of spring in the Swiss Alps is attended by many wonderful
phenomena. It would seem that no power was strong enough to break the
icy chain in which the high Alps are bound fast; but there comes a day,
generally early in April, when beautifully tinted veils of cloud form
over the southern horizon, and a death-like stillness prevails in the
mountains. The eye of the experienced hunter detects this sign in a
moment, and knows it to be the token of approaching danger. If among the
glaciers, he hastens to the valley below, where he finds the villages in
commotion. Sheep and cattle are being hurriedly housed, and everything
being secured against the dreaded _Foehn_, which is surely coming from
beyond those rose-tinted clouds in the south. The _Foehn_ is a warm wind
which, in the spring, comes blowing northward from the hot African
desert. On a sudden the stillness is broken by a terrible rushing sound,
and a burning breath like fire strikes on the snowy pinnacles and
glaciers. All nature is soon in an uproar. Mighty banks of snow,
loosened from their winter resting-place, roar and rumble down the
mountain-side in avalanches, bearing huge r