LETTER XII. 135 



in the habit of rushing from their frying-pan into 

 the cold water or snow outside, hence the in- 

 variable position of these huts on the river-banks. 

 The Indians on the Ashinola, at any rate, are a 

 cleanly people, especially on their hunting expe- 

 ditions, before starting upon which they indulge 

 in most wholesale ablutions, and during which 

 they are rude enough to insist upon the ladies of 

 their party sleeping in little wigwams or shelters 

 by themselves. But I am off the line. White 

 goats, not redskins, should be the subjects of this 

 letter, and it was because a colony of white goats 

 was said to dwell in these peaks that we camped 

 at this particular spot ; an old Indian camping- 

 ground on ordinary occasions being a thing rather 

 to avoid than to seek. The goat is very local in 

 its distribution, and keeps a good deal apart from 

 all other beasts, living in the most barren moun- 

 tain-tops, where, though it finds something to 

 browse upon, no grass tempts sheep or deer to 

 share its solitude. 



Its skin only sells for $T50 at the Hudson 

 Bay agencies in the North- West, and its 

 flesh is so unappetizing that even an Ashinola 

 Indian won't eat it. So when three or four 

 years ago (and Toma was sure it was not longer 

 than that) two white goats appeared from no one 

 knew where, on the sheer cliff opposite, no great 



