MARK TWAIN ON THE CHAMOIS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 203, 26 August 1880, Page 4

MARK TWAIN ON THE CHAMOIS.

The following chapter is from Mark Twain's latest book, "Tbe Tramp Abroad " :— " Next morning we left jn the train for Switzerland, aud reached Lucerne about ten o'clock at night. The' first discovery tbat I made was tbat the beauty of the lake hail been exaggerated. Within a day or two I mVde another discovery. This. was<.tha,t .the lauded chamois is not a wild gont; that it in not a horned animal ; that it is not shy ; that it does uot avoid human society ; and there is no peril in hunting v. The chamois-is a. black or brown' oren'ure, hot bigger than a musturd s.ed ; you oo not have to go after it, it comes after you ; it arrives in vast herds and skips aud scampers all over your body, inside your clothes ; thus, it ia cot shy, bat extremely sociable ; is not afrai i >of man ; oh. the conirary it will attack/him ; its bite is not dangerous, but neither is It pleasant ; its activity has not been over-stated ; if you try to put your finger on it it will skip 1000 times its own length at one jump, and so no eye is sharp enough to see where it alights, A great deal i

of romantic nonsense baß been written about the Swiss chamois and tbe jperil of hunting it, whereas the truth Ja: that women and children hunt it, ahd 'fearlessly; indeed, everybody hunts it; the hunting is going oh all the j jtitne, day and night, in bed and out of it. It is poelio foolishness to hunt it wijth a quo ; very few people do that-- -[here is not one man in a million wbo cab hit it with a gun. r B is mugb easier to catch it thhn it is to shoot it, and only tbe experienced .hatnois hunter can do either. > Another common piece ojF exaggeration is about the scarcity of the chamois. It is the reverse of scarce. Droves of 100,000 chamois are not unusual in tbe Swiss hotetr. Indeed they are so numerous as to be a great pee.." Travellers in other' parts of tbe world besides Switzerland will recognise the truth of tbis zoological excursion,