IN THE ALASKA-YUKON GAMELANDS 



seventeen that had just passed. They were 

 about a mile away and separated from us by a 

 couple of divides. Later we walked out to the 

 rim of the precipice that dropped below and saw 

 William a short distance down the hill. He said 

 he connected with his goat, all right, but that it 

 hadn't yet shed its hair, and issued a warning 

 that the other boys had advised us not to shoot 

 any more as the goats weren't yet "clean." 

 This puzzled us greatly, and especially Cap, who 

 said that goats always shed in June. Notwith- 

 standing William's advice, we started again to 

 climb up, hoping to get a close-up look at some 

 others possibly those that we had seen from the 

 glacier. My limbs began to cramp so badly that 

 I decided to remain back. Half an hour after 

 Harry, William and Cap had disappeared over 

 the rim above I heard rifle shots in their direc- 

 tion. Jumping to my feet, unable to overcome 

 the hunting curiosity that sometimes seizes us, 

 I clambered to the top toward them. 



Glancing to the westward I counted twenty 

 goats moving away trailing up a hill at a dis- 

 tance of half a mile, like silent marching soldier 

 specters. They seemed not the least excited, 

 but determined and imperturbable. To me 

 there is something patriarchal in the appearance 

 of a goat, and as they lined out on that trail they 

 formed a picture solemn and reverential. 



I believe in one of the above paragraphs I men- 

 tioned rifle shots. I imagine the reader will begin 



62 



