MULE DEER AND MOUNTAIN GOAT 79 



circumstances. A friend of mine told me that once, 

 when hunting sheep, a blinding snowstorm came on. 

 Shortly afterwards he encountered the band he was 

 pursuing close to a precipice. He shot the ram, who, 

 in his death leap, jumped clear over the precipice. 

 The ewes, seeing their leader disappear, prompted by 

 a blind impulse, followed one by one and so met 

 their fate ; it is impossible to imagine goats acting in 

 a similar manner. Very rarely, I believe, they get 

 stuck in a place in which they can neither go up 

 nor down, forward nor back, and so perish ; but such 

 cases are quite exceptional. They fear nothing, and 

 are at times determined fighters. 



They have a curious gland behind each horn, whose 

 function has yet to be ascertained. These glands are 

 respectively smaller in the females than in the males, 

 and though, in the mating season, they become some- 

 what enlarged, they have little or no scent. Indeed I 

 was struck at the absence of any odour attached to 

 these animals, for in the strength and quality of their 

 bouquet they are far inferior to an old Highland billy 

 I shot three years ago in Sutherlandshire. During 

 the two years I was away his head and scalp were 

 hanging up in a draught, yet even after that I have 

 had to reluctantly abandon all thoughts of having it 

 set up ! 



They are slow movers on level ground, indeed, 

 Tyee Jimmy, a guide, lassoed one on the flats near 

 Lillooet. They stand about thirty-six inches at the 

 shoulder, weigh (roughly) three hundred pounds, and 



