The Wbite Goat 235 



all the world looked as if a goat might come round 

 the corner at any moment. But no goat ever 

 did ; and yet, had I ridden down those mountains, 

 and over a space of plains to the westward, and 

 up the very first mountains I should then have 

 met, there would then have been all the goat I 

 wanted, and not (I have been told) a single 

 sheep ! 



Thinking these things over, I began to wonder 

 if some particular kind of food (since climate it 

 could absolutely not be) was the cause of this 

 flocking apart. Was there, perchance, some little 

 herb which a goat must have and a sheep didn't 

 like ? Well, if that be so, no botanist has so far 

 told me its name ; while on the other hand, very 

 recently, I have had news of a sportsman who was 

 hunting in some mountains of British Columbia 

 where sheep and goat were both readily to be 

 found, and whose experience was like mine, only 

 more marked and significant. He had stood upon 

 one mountain where there were goat, and looked 

 across to an adjacent one where he could plainly 

 see sheep. Now on his mountain there was not 

 a single sheep ; he must go to the other for them ; 

 but over there he must expect no goat. He 

 found this so, and he was assured that it was 



