104 Sport and Life. 



end, then again letting myself down miniature precipices formed 

 by awkwardly shaped boulders piled upon the ridge. Keeping as 

 much as possible on the off-side, I finally got to the spot where 

 I thought I was just above the goats. For the last hour I had 

 had no chance of seeing my game, hence was unaware that, while 

 I was approaching them, they had taken an upward course, and were 

 actually within 6oyds. or yoyds. of the top. My surprise, therefore, 

 can be imagined when, on raising my head over the ridge, with my 

 rifle slung over my shoulder, I found myself face to face with them. 

 At this moment a stone gave way beneath my feet, and they 

 looked up, seeing, however, only my head. Keeping the latter 

 perfectly still, I slowly got down my rifle, but before I succeeded 

 in this both goats had squatted down on their haunches, and, 

 raising their forefeet from the ground, occupied the position 

 I alluded to. It was the strangest sight imaginable, but I was too 

 eager to enjoy it long, and I rolled them over, and, alas ! down the 

 slope to the very foot, with a right and left. One, a young ram, on 

 receiving the bullet, made a high leap in the air, pitching on his 

 head when he came down. Fortunately, their fall down the almost 

 perpendicular declivity did not injure the horns, though their 

 bodies were in a jelly-like condition. 



I have already mentioned that British Columbia is the true home 

 of the Haplocerus. A description of my first goat hunt there will 

 make the reader acquainted with a picturesque district as well as 

 with some of the obstacles which the stalker had to face, when 

 invading that then perfectly wild and practically unknown district. 



To-day a four days' railway journey takes the traveller from New 

 York across the main Rockies to the attractive Flathead country, as 

 good a starting point for a summer's hunt as there is left. If he is 

 a lover of canoe work he has a good chance of trying his mettle by 

 taking to the rushing Kootenay River, and following it through 

 the more than hundred miles long canons it has burrowed through 

 the southern extremity of the Selkirk range, till he reaches at 

 Bonner's Ferry more open country. It will make him acquainted 

 with all the mysteries of canoe travel, " portaging," running swift 



