The Antelope-Goat of the Pacific Slope. 121 



The Haplocerus has behind its horns a musk gland, not unlike 

 that -of the male chamois during the rut, and the meat of both male 

 and female is strongly impregnated with a musky flavour, which 

 makes it repulsive to all but the semi-starved. And, even in the 

 case of the latter, almost anything is preferable to goat venison if 

 it is not that of a kid. I remember once being out after goat with 

 my friend Medhurst, when we ran completely out of provisions, the 

 man whom we had sent down for a fresh supply not having 

 returned as quickly as we expected. We had been out stalking all 

 day, and I had brought back a bit of meat from a fat black bear I 

 had killed. We had absolutely nothing else in camp, and when 

 Medhurst got back, long after dark, he brought in a piece of goat 

 venison of an old ram he had killed. He had eaten nothing since 

 early that morning, and he and the dog he had with him were pretty 

 well starved. Medhurst had never been hungry enough to touch 

 goat or bear meat, for he had the strongest possible aversion to 

 both. Even in this instance he could not swallow either, and made 

 a very meagre supper off the blackened rind of bacon with which 

 we had for the past week greased the frying-pan when baking 

 bread. This, at no time very appetising rind, Medhurst literally 

 took out of the mouth of the dog who had discovered the discarded 

 treasure lying about camp, and was gnawing at it when his master 

 forced him to give it up and accept in lieu of it a chunk of the 

 venerable goat's "venison." It was the funniest sight in the world 

 to see that dog tackle this meat. Aversion to the musky flavour 

 seemed to be almost as pronounced as in the case of his master, 

 and even when he had swallowed it, certain sounds which we 

 presently heard led us to suppose that goat's meat may possibly 

 possess valuable pharmaceutical qualities as an emetic of speedy 

 action. 



