THE MOUNTAIN GOAT AT HOME 59 



away clifif-climber, the goat does things that are impos- 

 sible to sheep. 



As soon as the goat-climbing exhibition had ended, 

 we hurried on across the basin, and up the side of Ridge 

 No. 2. This ridge bore a thin sprinkling of low spruces, 

 a little fallen timber, much purple fireweed and some 

 good grass. As seen at a little distance, it was a purple 

 ridge. The western end of it snugged up against the 

 mountain, and it was there that we met our two big billy 

 goats. They had climbed nearly to the top of our ridge, 

 close up to the mountain, and when we first sighted them 

 they were beginning to feed upon a lace-leaved anemone 

 (Pulsatilla occidentalis) ^ at the edge of their newly 

 found pasture. We worked toward them, behind a small 

 clump of half-dead spruces, and finally halted to wait 

 for them to come within range. 



After years of waiting, Rocky Mountain goats, at 

 last I How amazingly white and soft they look; and how 

 big they are! The high shoulder hump, the big, round 

 barrel of the body, and the knee-breeches on the legs 

 make the bulk of the animal seem enormous. The white- 

 ness of " the driven snow," of cotton and of paper seem 

 by no means to surpass the incomparable white of those 

 soft, flufify-coated animals as they appear in a setting of 

 hard, gray limestone, rugged slide-rock and dark-green 

 vegetation. They impressed me as being the whitest liv- 

 ing objects I ever beheld, and far larger than I had ex- 

 pected to find them. In reality, their color had the 

 effect of magnifying their size; for they looked as big 

 as two-year-old buflfaloes, 



