THE MOUNTAIN GOAT AS WE SAW HIM 109 



droppings, which Norboe and Smith assured us were the 

 winter sleeping-places of goats. In winter goats also 

 seek food upon the bleak ridges from which the snow is 

 continually swept clean by the wind. 



Up to the time we left the mountains (September 

 30) the rutting season had not begun. Our guides say 

 it does not begin until December i. The old male goats 

 were living quite apart from the herds of females and 

 young males, and there was not the slightest sign of 

 sexual excitement. The herds were quiet, to the point 

 of dulness. The open pastures between timber-line and 

 the naked rocks of the summits were covered with food, 

 and once below his beloved rocks a goat had only to 

 stoop and take. Often we saw goats lie on their pastures, 

 motionless for hours, unable to eat more. They loved to 

 lie on southern slopes, bathing themselves in the glorious 

 sunshine, and blinking away the hours. Whenever a 

 herd was sighted at rest, it was safe to count upon its 

 remaining there for an hour or two, unless disturbed by 

 a hunter. 



Everywhere we went, I watched the slides for evi- 

 dences of accidents to goats through being overwhelmed 

 by spring avalanches, but saw none. I closely questioned 

 Charlie Smith and the Norboe brothers, but none of 

 them could recall a single instance of a dead goat in a 

 snow-slide. They said the goats are too wary to be 

 caught. But there are exceptions. Mr. W. Stephen- 

 son writes me from Quesnel Forks, central British 

 Columbia, of a goat which was killed in a snow- 

 slide in May, 1905, in the mountains east of that 



