A GREAT DAY WITH GOATS 85 



able. At a little distance, their legs looked very straight 

 and stick-like, devoid of all semblance of gracefulness 

 and of leaping power. The animals were very white and 

 immaculate, — as were all the goats that we saw, — and 

 they stood out with the sharpness of clean snow-patches 

 on dark rock. Nature may have known about the much 

 overworked principle of " protective coloration " when 

 she fashioned the mountain goat, but if so, she was 

 guilty of cruelty to goats in clothing this creature with 

 pelage which, in the most comfortable season for hunt- 

 ing, renders it visible for three miles or more. Even 

 the helpless kidling is as white as cotton, and a grand 

 mark for eagles. 



That those goats should look so stiff and genuinely 

 ungraceful on their legs, gave me a distinct feeling of 

 disappointment. From that moment I gave up all hope 

 of ever seeing a goat perform any feats requiring either 

 speed or leaping powers; for we saw that of those short, 

 thick legs, — nearly as straight as four Indian clubs, — 

 nothing is to be expected save power in lifting and slid- 

 ing, and rocklike steadfastness. In all the two hundred 

 and thirty-nine goats that we saw, we observed nothing 

 to disprove the conclusive evidence of that day regard- 

 ing the physical powers of the mountain goat. 



While we watched the band of mountain loafers, still 

 another old billy goat, making No. 13, appeared across 

 the rock basin far to our left. From the top of the 

 northern ridge, he set out to walk across the wide rock 

 wall that formed the western face of Phillips Peak. 

 From where we were the wall seemed almost smooth, but 



