ZOOLOGICAL SOt'IETY BULLETIN. 



681 



As I li.id something to say to the capture of 

 them when they were but little kids it may in- 

 terest your readers to have an account of my 

 experiences in the jjursuit. 



In the spring of l<)Ot I started out from Fort 

 Steele accompanied by a Swede boy named 

 Jimmy White. We had two saddle horses and 

 two for packing, one of tlie latter being the 

 famous Skookum, reputed the best and wisest 

 of pack animals. We made for the head waters 

 of White Eiver, a tributary' of the Kootenay, 

 some sixty miles north of our starting point 

 and pitched our camp at an elevation of 

 some five thousand feet over sea level. Four 

 days of the most severe and exhausting climb- 

 ing resulted in four days of blank failure as 

 far as the capture of the kids I was after was 

 concerned. On the fifth we caught one little 

 chap after a desperate chase amongst surround- 

 ings where the kid was all at home and we were 

 all at sea — if I might use the expression. Still 

 we had him, and back we fared for camp wliere 

 I acted as his nurse. I had provided myself 

 with an ordinary feeding bottle, exactly such as 

 is used for the human kid, fitted with a nozzle, 

 or whatever they call the arrangement out of 

 which the nutriment is sucked. After some 

 amount of difficulty I got it to drink a mixture 

 of St. Charles cream and warm water, and after 

 the third or fourth feeding all trouble as to the 

 giving of the food ceased as the kid understood 

 his side of the business perfectly. This re- 

 lieved me of my nursing to some extent, so fit- 

 ting up a little corral for his kidship we took to 

 the tops again and after some exhausting agility 

 amongst the rocks we got another. This one 

 proved of the Nanny variety, and a very suit- 

 able companion for the first. I considered I 

 had a bit of fortune in my hands and hurried 

 back to Fort Steele where I kept them during 

 the summer. They turned out to be wonderful- 

 Iv amusing pets and would follow me all over 

 the town, though wild and shy as hawks with 

 strangers and with dogs, especially. At first 

 they throve well on cream and warm water — 

 just as I fed them in camp, but later on I found 

 they did better on birch brush which I cut for 

 them along the creek bottoms. They did not 

 grow very fast and I fancied there was a 

 chance of my over-feeding them ; but as a mat- 

 ter of fact I now believe I did not feed them 

 sufficiently. In the fall of 19(^5 I sent them to 

 the Bronx, where, I am sorry to say, they died 

 soon after their arrival. 



Our trip had showni us that we had hit on a 

 part of the mountains where goat were plenti- 

 ful, so in the spring of lf)Oo we returned to our 

 camp and began operations on a very high 



mountain whicli, as far as I know, is yet un- 

 named. Here we saw a considerable number of 

 kids and chased them till our hearts were sore 

 and our feet and hands if jjossible a shade more 

 sore. We reached camp after dark weary and 

 almost too tired to eat. Still a hot supper, a 

 warm fire, a smoke or so and a sleep ten fathoms 

 deep started hope in our hearts again. By 

 daylight we were breasting the heights once 

 more, this time with Jimmy partly dressed in 

 goat skin. It was an idea of mine — that goat 

 skin disguise. By and by we marked an old 

 Nanny and a kid feeding out on a snow slide, 

 whereupon we started to stalk as close to them 

 as we dared. Tying a white handkerchief over 

 Jimmy's head, to still further make him resem- 

 ble a goat, I started him on his hands and knees 

 towards the mother and kid, hoping that the 

 mater would mistake him for an overgrown 

 Billy of lier acquaintance. I cannot say what 

 she thought of the arrangement, but when he 

 got within about twenty yards of the pair the 

 old lady put down her head and came for Jim- 

 my with vengeance in her motherly eye. Goat's 

 horns are sharp, and Jimmy knew it. It was 

 no fault of his that he didn't strike Sweden in 

 three jumps, for standing up he sprang back 

 with more hurry to the square inch inside his 

 skin than I thought dignified. Jimmy came 

 back, all right. But the old goat when she 

 found what it really was, quit that region at a 

 pace that words won't describe very easily. 

 The kid went with her, but not all our hopes. 

 ^^'e followed after them and about dark we 

 caught the kid at a place where there was an 

 overhanging cornice of rock which the old one 

 managed to negotiate but wliich was too much 

 for the little one. Back to camp was the order, 

 arriving there after dark. ]SIuch the same ex- 

 perience was had with this number three kid as 

 with those of the previous sjjring. but I was now 

 becoming quite an experienced goat nurse with 

 knowledge of the rules of the game. 



During the following four days our luck was 

 decidedly in the ascendant, as we captured one 

 each day, making five in all. I meant to get 

 eight if I could, but our shoes were worn so that 

 our toes were all but visible, our clothes were 

 fitting for scare-crow duties and no more. 



Plainly it was for us to get back to civiliza- 

 tion, but I had the education of the kids to eom- 

 ])lete in the direction of absorbing St. Charles 

 cream and to this end erected a little corral of 

 Jack pine about tw-elve feet square and covered 

 in at the top. We called this establishment 

 "The Nursery" and here I took up my duties. 

 Truth to tell I had not much trouble with the 

 little fellows and used to feed them about every 



