He fell perpendicularly that distance, and, without touching the ground or the sides of the precipice, rebounded, and fell again about fifteen yards further down.
I thought he was knocked to atoms, but he got up and went off; and although we tracked him by his blood to a considerable distance, we were after all unable to find him!" My young readers may remember that many similar feats have been witnessed in the Rocky Mountains of America, performed by the "bighorn"-- a wild sheep that inhabits these mountains, so closely resembling the _Ovis ammon_ of the Himalayas, as to be regarded by some naturalists as belonging to the same species.

The hunters of the American wilderness positively assert that the bighorn fearlessly flings himself from high cliffs, alighting on his horns; and, then rebounding into the air like an elastic ball, recovers his feet unhurt, and even unstunned by the tremendous "header!" No doubt there is a good deal of exaggeration in these "hunter stories;" but it is nevertheless true that most species of wild goats and sheep, as well as several of the rock-loving antelopes--the chamois and klipspringer, for instance--can do some prodigious feats in the leaping line, and such as it is difficult to believe in by any one not accustomed to the habits of these animals.

It is not easy to comprehend how Colonel Markham's tahir could have fallen eighty yards--that is, 240 feet--to say nothing of the supplementary descent of forty-five feet further--without being smashed to "smithereens." But although we may hesitate to give credence to such an extraordinary statement, it would not be a proper thing to give it a flat contradiction.

Who knows whether there may not be in the bones of these animals some elastic principle or quality enabling them to counteract the effects of such great falls?
There are many mechanical contrivances of animal life as yet but very imperfectly understood; and it is well-known that Nature has wonderfully adapted her creatures to the haunts and habits for which she has designed them.

It may be, then, that these wild goats and sheep--the Blondins and Leotards of the quadruped world--are gifted with certain saltatory powers, and furnished with structural contrivances which are altogether wanting to other animals not requiring them.