TIMBER-LINE AND SUMMIT 135 



As we climbed down, a solitary billy goat came over 

 the peak in front of us, beyond the basin, and treated us 

 to a wonderful performance. From the side of the peak 

 a thin shoulder ran out toward the Avalanche Valley. It 

 was about three hundred feet high. The " formation " 

 stood on edge, quite perpendicular, and there was a band 

 of shaly stratification which had weathered a trifle below 

 the general surface of the shoulder. I saw a goat appear 

 on the crest of it, and start down what looked like a 

 pathway of smooth and perpendicular rock. 



^' Charlie, just see what that goat is doing! " 



We settled back against the slide-rock, and adjusted 

 our glasses. 



"Well!" exclaimed the guide. " He might as well 

 be standing on his head! " 



Coolly and deliberately, without any show either of 

 haste or hesitation, that goat walked down the place that 

 looked perpendicular. Not even once did he make a 

 false step, or hesitate. 



Over the worst places he came down two feet at a 

 time. He reached down with his forefeet, planted them 

 far apart, then slid his hindfeet down between them 

 until they too secured a good hold. It looked as if his 

 hindquarters rubbed against the cliff; and beyond ques- 

 tion, his rear dew-claws and the lowest joints of his hind- 

 legs did so. 



Over the lower third of the descent, where the grade 

 was less steep, and the pathway offered rougher footing, 

 the goat calmly walked down to the bottom, crossed the 

 slide-rock and turned off up the basin, toward a patch 



