NILES ANNUAL. REPORT. Des 
ing a test of sportsmanship. Only those sound of wind and limb 
can venture after Oreamnos. The first rule in goat hunting is 
to go to the highest point that can be found and this point is 
apt to be very high. 
HABITS. 
The sight of a man does not seriously disturb a goat and it 
seems to be of indifferent power of vision. Sounds affect it even 
less. The constant falling of rocks and stones and the rumble 
and breaking up of the glaciers, close to which it finds its home, 
has led the goat to distrust the warning of its ears. Shouting at 
a goat only arouses a slight curiosity and the report of a rifle 
has scarcely more effect. The hunter may sometimes stand for 
an hour in plain view of a goat without disturbing it, but its 
sense of smell is highly developed and the slightest trace of human 
scent will alarm it. 
These characters, together with confidence in the inaccessible 
nature of its habitat, born of long experience with animals other 
than man, have all combined to give the goat its reputation 
for stupidity. It probably is stupid, but less so than would 
appear to those accustomed to the nervousness of other game ani- 
mals. The goat, like the skunk, has a serene reliance in its 
ability to protect itself and is accustomed to gaze with indiffer- 
ence at enemies who threaten it from below. The large males 
are not lacking in bravery and will savagely fight off a dog when 
attacked. Stories are told of wounded goat attacking man when 
cornered, but most of the danger to the hunter lies in missing a 
foothold, or in the stones rolled down from above by a fleeing 
animal. 
Goat are marvelously tough and can carry more lead even 
than a grizzly. It sometimes seems almost impossible to kill 
them and in some cases when hopelessly wounded, they show a 
tendency to throw themselves from a cliff. That this is a deliber- 
ate act on their part is generally believed by goat hunters, but it 
is doubtful whether it is more than a last desperate effort to get 
out of harm’s way. 
Goat, like moose, are inclined to be solitary, but are often 
found in small family groups. They occasionally assemble in 
larger numbers in some favorite feeding ground, as many as 
twenty-seven having been seen together. 
