The Antelope-Goat of the Pacific Slope. 101 



much larger than a fly, was making fair time down the slope, using 

 hands and feet to find what was in most cases very precarious 

 footing. A few weeks before I had made a successful stalk down 

 this very declivity ; and, as on that occasion I was saved from a 

 very bad, if not fatal, fall, only by the merest chance, and hence 

 knew its dangerous character, I breathed more freely when finally, 

 following my instructions respecting details of his course, he reached 

 the bottom. Notwithstanding that he had sent quite a number of 

 boulders rattling down the precipitous declivity, the nearest band of 

 goat had shown no marked alarm ; and, as I could watch them from 

 my post, while his view of them was obstructed by intervening 

 rocks, I let him know by a preconcerted signal, watched with 

 glasses, that the goats were yet in their old place. He was now at 

 the bottom of the rocks, which surrounded him in an amphitheatre- 

 shaped half circle, a configuration I have always found most awk- 

 ward and puzzling in regard to the wind. What I feared came true. 

 He had not proceeded many steps on the extensive snow-field in 

 the direction of the goats, which were still yooyds. or Sooyds. off, 

 when I saw them rise on their haunches, evidently alarmed by an 

 obnoxious whiff. They could not see my friend, and his progress 

 across the hard snow was naturally noiseless ; and yet, after a 

 minute or two, led by the large billy, they made off for the top of 

 the ridge with the intention of crossing it. Now was my time to 

 get near the point where the beasts were evidently proposing to 

 cross the ridge. Hardly had I done so when I heard the booming 

 report of my friend's '500 Rigby. This turned their flight slightly 

 to one side, so that for the next ten minutes some "tall" climbing 

 and crawling along uninvitingly narrow ledges had to be accom- 

 plished. But I got my shots in, though at very long range, bagging 

 two goats, one of whom had been wounded by my friend. 



I may here mention that no sportsman should venture to stalk 

 goat without having provided himself with a sheath for the muzzle 

 of his rifle. Made of the stoutest sole leather, covering about six 

 or eight inches of the barrels, it should slip off and on with perfect 

 ease. Not only will it protect the muzzle against hardly avoidable 



