They move so slowly that you cannot tell they are
moving by looking at them. But by driving a stake down, you can see,
after a long time, that the ice has moved a little way.
A great many of the people in Switzerland live by keeping cattle and
sheep and goats. Their houses are in the valleys. But in spring, when
the snow begins to melt and the grass begins to grow, the men drive
their flocks up the mountain sides to feed. There they stay till the
end of summer. The men take with them a supply of food, and they sleep
in huts on the mountain side.
There is a kind of goat in Switzerland called the chamois. It lives
high up in the mountains. It is very hard to hunt the chamois, for it
can go into places where a man cannot follow it. It can leap very
nimbly from one rock to another. It can go up and down a rough
mountain side.
[Illustration: Chamois.]
In the summer the chamois feeds on herbs and flowers. In winter it
eats the shoots and buds of pine trees. It is very fond of salt.
There is a kind of stone in the mountains that is partly made of salt.
The chamois licks these stones to get the salt.
The chamois feed together in herds of fifteen or twenty.
Pages:
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58