It is evident to any one acquainted with zoology that, whatever may be the Hebrew word, "Chamois" cannot be the correct rendering, inasmuch as this animal does not inhabit Palestine, nor are there any proofs that it ever did so. The Chamois frequents the lofty inaccessible crags of the highest mountains, finding its food in the scanty herbage which grows in such regions, appearing on the brink of awful precipices, and leaping from ledge to ledge with ease and safety. We must, therefore, look for some other animal. The Chamois is one of the most wary of Antelopes, and possesses the power of scenting mankind at what would seem to be an impossible distance. Its ears are as acute as its nostrils, so that there are few animals which are so difficult to approach. Only those who have been trained to climb the giddy heights of the Alpine Mountains, to traverse the most fearful precipices with a quiet pulse and steady head, to exist for days amid the terrible solitudes of ice, rock, and snow,--only these, can hope to come within sight of the Chamois, when the animal is at large upon its native cliffs. The Hebrew word, which has been rendered Chamois, is Zamar, or Zemer, _i. e._ the leaper, and therefore an animal which is conspicuous for its agility. Zoologists have now agreed in the opinion that the Zamer of Deuteronomy is the handsome wild sheep which we know under the name of Aoudad (_Ammotragus Tragelaphus_). This splendid sheep is known by various names. It is the Jaela of some authors, and the Bearded Sheep of others. It is also called the Fichtall, or Lerwea; and the French zoologists describe it under the name of _Mouflon à manchettes_, in allusion to the fringe of long hair that ornaments the fore limbs. The Aoudad is a large and powerful animal, exceedingly active, and has the habits of the goat rather than of the sheep, on which account it is reckoned among the goats by the Arabs of the present day, and doubtless was similarly classed by the ancient inhabitants of Palestine. The height of the adult Aoudad is about three feet, and its general colour is pale dun, relieved by the dark masses of long hair that fall from the neck and the tufts of similar hair which decorate the knees of the male. The female is also bearded and tufted, but the hair, which in the male looks like the mane of the lion, in the female is but slightly developed.