ALEXANDER] THE GOAT— AN APPRECIATION 109 



innocent creature" to be found in the Cascade Mountains. 



The hoofs of all goats are particularly well developed for climb- 

 ing; but in this art the Rocky Mountain Goat excels. He is 

 unbelievingly daring and adroit in his passage through the rugged 

 mountain wilds that he inhabits. He seems to risk limb and Hfe 

 itself in every move it makes on the rock barrens, and ice fields 

 that it delights to roam in. Here in the bleak upper world, where 

 only a stiff coarse grass and a hard and almost lifeless lichen is 

 found to sustain these animals, they thrive and are seemingly 

 well protected from beasts of prey ; for few or none of the creatures 

 that could devour them are able to follow the treacherous ways 

 that are broad highways for the mountain goats. They have 

 small means of defense, the horns of the males being only six or 

 seven inches long, nor are they willing fighters; but the world 

 they have conquered for their own would be sufficiently secure 

 were it not for man, who in the role of the hunter, has proved a 

 hundredfold more deadly an enemy to the Mountain Goat than 

 is the panther. Man must play the Nimrod, must keep alive 

 the passion inherited from a savage ancestry. Man must kill, 

 and to prove that he must, will often risk his foolish limbs in 

 situations that the hungry bear is wise enough to shun. The noble 

 White Mountain Goat has suffered much as "game" for such 

 hunters, and in many places has been exterminated. 



The Ibex is another wild goat, — the largest of the family and 

 it has so often been described that it need only be mentioned here, 

 and the same is true of the great Markhor, a wild Himalayan goat 

 with peculiar corkscrew-like horns that Mr. Hornaday says, 

 "is the finest of all wild goats and in every way a picturesque 

 creature. Their wonderful horns may be fifty or sixty inches 

 long and make two complete turns before reaching full length." 

 This goat is believed by many to be the parent, in part at least, 

 of the valued Angora goat that is now so widely cultivated. 



As stated in the beginning, the goat as a domesticated animal 

 dates back to the dim gray dawn of civilization. It is closely 

 related to the sheep, differing from it only in a few minor respects. 

 Goats lack the hoof glands found in sheep and often have a rank 

 odor. The hoofs of sheep and goats are cloven in like manner, 

 the teeth are formed in the same way, but sheep have wool instead 

 of straight hair, and the goat has in addition the beard in the 

 male of the species. Tame goats, especially the old males are 



