ii8 CAMP-FIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 



regard the sheep as any more wary and keen-sighted than 

 the goat. He has seen large herds of goats post sentinels 

 who watched for danger so keenly and intelligently that 

 the approach of a hunter within shooting-distance was 

 quite impossible. The sentries watch in every direction. 

 Mr. Wellman advanced the theory that the goat seems 

 easier to stalk than the sheep because the coat of the for- 

 mer is so conspicuous that the hunter can see it long 

 before it sees him; and it is also easy to keep it in view 

 while stalking. On the other hand, all the colors of the 

 big-horn match so well with his surroundings that he is 

 difficult to locate, and thereby often is enabled to see the 

 hunter before the hunter sees him! I think this conclu- 

 sion is very reasonable, and entirely correct. 



In my opinion, no animal which can live all the year 

 round, and prosper, above timber-line in the British Co- 

 lumbian Rockies, can rightly be called stupid. If the 

 mountain goat were not a good observer, a good rea- 

 soner, and at all times cool and level-headed, he would 

 continually be coming to grief. He would be drowned 

 by freshets, or carried down by snow-combs and ava- 

 lanches, or blown off precipices, or caught napping by 

 grizzly bears. But none of those unpleasant things hap- 

 pen unto him. 



Excepting the musk-ox, the mountain goat is the 

 only North American hoofed animal which does not 

 lose its head when brought to bay by dogs or men. If 

 you round up a deer, elk, moose or caribou on a narrow 

 ledge, or on the edge of a precipice, it will cheerfully 

 leap off into eternity in order to escape the terrors of man 



