The Goat — ^An Appreciation 



William P. Alexander 

 Assistant in The Natural History of the Farm Course — Cornell University. 



The Rocky Mountain Goat 



Where the rocky ramparts raise 



Slcyward into regions sterile, 

 Where the storm at random plays, 



And the heights are fraught with peril ; 

 Where the falcon sends his note 



Defiant from the cliff a-ringing. 

 There the fearless mountain goat 



To his awful path is clinging. 



On the crag with ragged face 



Where man has never tried his daring. 

 Upward with a daunting pace 



Still the great, white goat is faring; 

 For the scanty tuft of grass 



Still he mounts the dizzy fastness, 

 Up beyond the clouds that pass 



Below him in a sea of vastness. 



On the treeless shelf and crag 



Little knows he of the fearing 

 Of the forest hunted stag. 



Anxious eyed, and timid peering; 

 Never comes the shaggy bear 



Where the lone height finds him sleeping, 

 Never panther from its lair 



Fears he, through the midnight creeping! 



One alone to do him wrong, 



Still in mad, foolhardy risking 

 Mounts the ramparts, wild and strong 



Up to where the kid is frisking; 

 Man, the huntsman, void of sense 



Still the savage blood displaying. 

 Revels yet in violence 



And a pleasure finds in slaying! 



With the hissing leaden ball, 



Man the pinnacle doth ravage, 

 And the mountain goat must fall, 



For the pleasure of the savage; 

 Jagged peak that rends the slcy 



Lends him not a habitation, 

 Where from danger he may fly. 



Or the path of devastation! 



Would the old time reigned anew, 

 ■ When the golden morn arousing, 

 The mountain goat might shake the dew 



From his pelt, and wander, browsing, 

 Still secure o'er rugged rift, 



In the haunts of soaring eagle. 

 Where the mighty mountains lift 



Their heads in silence, stem and regal ! 



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