72 TRACTABILITY OF GOATS. 



exactly to secure them on the brink of the steepest 

 precipices ; they are hollow underneath, with sharp 

 edges, like the inside of a spoon, which prevents them 

 from sliding off the rocky eminences they frequent. 

 A foot that is so nicely adapted to the purpose re- 

 quired, by an animal whose native character leads it 

 to climb amongst rocks and declivities, would have 

 been useless or inconvenient to a creatm'e which 

 grazed on a level. Its disposition, also, accords with 

 the suppleness of its limbs and the agility of its 

 motions : always restless and active, it walks, stops 

 short, runs, skips, jumps, advances, retreats, exposes 

 itself to view, then hides itself behind a thicket, or 

 flies out of sight; and all without any apparent 

 motive but the pleasure of changing from one pas- 

 ture to another. But with so much caprice, they 

 seem to have a tenderness that is amiable; they 

 soon become tame, and will feed out of the hand of 

 those to whom they are attached. Buffon says 

 they will easily suffer themselves to be sucked, even 

 by young children : hence, the fables of heroes nou- 

 rished by a goat. He adds, that adders, and that 

 strange-looking bird, the goat-sucker, fasten to their 

 teats during the night, and deprive them of their 

 milk. 



They are very numerous in this country. Mrs. 

 Saville often makes cheese of goats' milk ; and the 



