256 The White Goat 



swallow, and taught them to eat the camass, a 

 precarious vegetable. In the language of Doc- 

 tor Coues (the admirable annotator of the 1894 

 edition, one can hardly imagine a better and 

 honester piece of work) : " Having been neither 

 frozen nor starved quite to death — having sur- 

 vived camass roots, tartar emetic, and Rush's 

 pills (the famous Dr. Rush of Philadelphia,) the 

 explorers have reached navigable Columbian 

 waters. ..." I could quote from this splendid 

 book forever. It is our American Robinson 

 Crusoe. Somebody, no doubt, will grind it into 

 a historical novel ; but no novel, no matter how 

 big a sale it has, can spoil the journal of Lewis 

 and Clark. Well, at this sick camp, while they're 

 making ready to float to Astoria, enter the white 

 goat. It is his first recorded appearance. 



Says Gass : " There appears to be a kind of 

 sheep in this country, besides the ibex or moun- 

 tain sheep, and which have wool on. I saw some 

 of the skins, which the natives had, with wool 

 four inches long, and as fine, white, and soft as 

 any I had ever seen." 



Here, you perceive, is the error, appearing 

 simultaneously with the goat. 



These sheep " live," says the text in another 



