The Antelope-Goat of the Pacific Slope. 117 



and Flathead valleys, the Haplocerus inhabits in large flocks the 

 last-named of the three ridges, and is found also on the western 

 slope of the centre chain. Both of these drain to the Pacific. On 

 the most easterly chain, which rises from the Calgary and McLeod 

 plains, it is, I believe, occasionally found, but there is good reason 

 to believe that such occurs only in consequence of the fact that the 

 Stonies and Flathead Indians hunt them with dogs, and thus 

 cause the animals to stray beyond their natural confines. Such, at 

 least, was the explanation I received from Stonie Indian hunters 

 who do the most " goat " hunting. 



To give the 41 30" N. Lat., or the Mount Shasta region as the 

 most southerly point at which the Haplocerus is found, is also not 

 strictly correct, for there is good evidence that they exist on 

 Mount Whitney, in California, a high, somewhat isolated mountain 

 block in Central California about 36 30" N. Lat., though none are 

 to be found for 5, or more than 300 miles, north, until Mount 

 Shasta is reached. Mount Whitney may, I think, be safely 

 accepted as the extreme southern boundary of the Haplocerus's 

 range, the great altitude of this peak (14, 886ft.) explaining their 

 existence in what is practically a semi-tropical region. Rowland 

 Ward, in his latest " Text-book for English Sportsmen " (Records 

 of Big Game), says "that it is distributed in North America 

 throughout the Rocky Mountains from about lat. 36 in California 

 at least as far north as lat. 6o." This, as I have already remarked, 

 is a misleading description, for the beast is not found in the Rocky 

 Mountains proper, but only on the mountains of the Pacific Slope. 



In the Badminton Library, Mr. Phillipps-Wolley devotes but a 

 little over two pages to it and to its chase, declaring " that it 

 appears to be the biggest fool that walks upon four legs," and 

 " that there is no wild animal easier to stalk." " I felt thoroughly 

 ashamed of myself," he writes, when he put an end to a big ram 

 with a bullet. 



I cannot at all agree with this writer in what he says of the 

 " goat." Were what he says true about its chase being the 

 easiest of any wild animal, it would surely have long ago shared 



