260 The White Goat 



frequently employed an alias than this probably 

 blameless animal. Such is the story of the con- 

 fusion begun we can only guess why by 

 Lewis and Clark, and not cleared up until our 

 own day. 



The goat is an animal far less wary than the 

 sheep. His watch is concentrated upon ap- 

 proaches from below. All the hunter has to do 

 is to get above him, to make at once for the 

 summit of the ridge which he proposes to hunt, 

 and the unsuspecting creature will never give you 

 a thought. Upon my word, it is inexcusable to 

 kill him, except for a specimen in a collection ; 

 he is so handsome, so harmless, and so stupid ! 

 And in his remoter haunts, where the nature of 

 man is still a closed book to him, he " thinketh 

 no evil"; he will stand looking at the hunter 

 with a sedate interest in his large, deep brown 

 eyes. The tenderfoot sportsman, it seems, will 

 generally make his beginnings as a maniac. Sud- 

 denly confronted with a herd of wild animals, he 

 frantically pumps his repeating rifle, hypnotized 

 by the glut of destruction. Luckily, he is apt, in 

 his excitement, to miss. His desire is for no one 

 special trophy, but for a hot killing of all in sight. 

 If we are not to blame him for this flare of blind 



