128 The Wilderness Hunter. 



themselves, or go off alone, while the young and the shes 

 keep together throughout the winter and the spring. The 

 young are generally brought forth above timber line, or at 

 its uppermost edge, save of course in those places where 

 the goats live among mountains wooded to the top. 

 Throughout the summer they graze on the short mountain 

 plants which in many places form regular mats above tim- 

 ber line ; the deep winter snows drive them low down in 

 the wooded valleys, and force them to subsist by browsing. 

 They are so strong that they plough their way readily 

 through deep drifts ; and a flock of goats at this season, 

 when their white coat is very long and thick, if seen wad- 

 dling off through the snow, have a comical likeness to so 

 many diminutive polar bears. Of course they could easily 

 be run down in the snow by a man on snowshoes, in the 

 plain ; but on a mountain side there are always bare rocks 

 and cliff shoulders, glassy with winter ice, which give either 

 goats or sheep an advantage over their snowshoe-bearing 

 foes that deer and elk lack. Whenever the goats pass 

 the winter in woodland they leave plenty of sign in the 

 shape of patches of wool clinging to all the sharp twigs and 

 branches against which they have brushed. In the spring 

 they often form the habit of drinking at certain low pools, 

 to which they beat deep paths ; and at this season, and to 

 a less extent in the summer and fall, they are very fond of 

 frequenting mineral licks. At any such lick the ground is 

 tramped bare of vegetation, and is filled with pits and hol- 

 lows, actually dug by the tongues of innumerable genera- 

 tions of animals ; while the game paths lead from them in 

 a dozen directions. 



