Tbe White Goat 269 



herd, and this occasioned an experience more 

 enlightening. 



I feel confident that those who have done 

 much hunting of big game have sometimes 

 heard such words as these: "This mountain used 

 to have a bunch of sheep on it all the time; three 

 hundred sheep ; " or, " Just about here last season 

 I ran into a band of twelve hundred elk ; " or, 

 " I passed two thousand antelope on the flat 

 yesterday." The person who says this to you 

 will have been your own guide, or some visitor 

 to camp who is comparing notes and exchang- 

 ing anecdotes. I, at any rate, have listened many 

 times to such assertions; and now and then I 

 have been tempted to observe (for instance) in 

 reply : " Two thousand antelope ! When you'd 

 counted nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, I 

 should think you'd have been too tired to go on." 

 But these are temptations that I have resisted. 

 I think, too, that the men believed what they 

 said in a general way. But here with the 

 goat was a famous opportunity. We could see 

 them clearly ; they were across a canon from our- 

 selves, a mile or so away ; they were lying down, 

 or standing, some eating, some slowly moving 

 about a little; they were in crowds, and in smaller 



