The White Goat and his Country 



We went cautiously along the narrow top 

 of crumbling slate, where the pines were scarce 

 and stunted, and had twisted themselves into 

 corkscrews so they might grip the ground 

 against the tearing force of storms. We came 

 on a number of fresh goat-tracks in the snow 

 or the soft shale. These are the reverse of 

 those of the mountain sheep, the V which the 

 hoofs make having its open end in the direc- 

 tion the animal is going. There seemed to 

 be several, large and small ; and the perverted 

 animals invariably chose the sharpest slant 

 they could find to walk on, often with a decent 

 level just beside it that we were glad enough 

 to have. If there were a precipice and a 

 sound flat top, they took the precipice, and 

 crossed its face on juts that did not look as 

 if your hat would hang on them. In this 

 I think they are worse than the mountain 

 sheep, if that is possible. Certainly they do 

 not seem to come down into the high pas- 

 tures and feed on the grass levels as the 

 sheep will. 



T and I hoped we should find a bunch, 



but that was not to be, in spite of the indi- 

 cations. As we continued, I saw a singular- 



39 



