2i8 THE OX FAMILY 



The Rocky Mountain goat in outline has the form of 

 a pigmy American bison ; except in the length and 

 color of its pelage it is clad after the style of the musk- 

 ox.* The average male is thirty-seven inches high 

 and weighs 200 pounds or more. 



The Rocky Mountain goat is often called the white 

 goat. It is nowhere abundant in the main chain of the 

 Rocky Mountains, if, indeed, it exists in these moun- 

 tains at all. Owen Wister tells us we may expect to 

 find white goats as far south as the Saw Tooth Moun- 

 tains, Idaho, and among the peaks northward from 

 Lake Chelan, the Okanogan and Methow rivers, all 

 three in Washington, and also on many mountains near 

 the coast in British Columbia, and adds if "you climb 

 high and hard enough you are almost sure to find 

 him." 



The reason why this animal remained so long un- 

 known to naturalists as well as sportsmen appears when 

 we observe the limited range occupied by the white 

 goat and the great altitudes where he is usually found. 

 So long as elk and deer were abundant in the valleys, the 

 early hunters, who shot for the meat, had no difficulty 

 in getting an abundance lower, and had no occasion to 

 look for it on the dizzy heights far above the timber- 

 line. The pioneers were not given to mountain-climb- 

 ing for sport or to take the view, and in crossing a 

 range always looked for the lowest pass, so that it is 

 not strange that for a long time the white goat was 

 overlooked. 



Captain Bonneville mentions the pursuit of two white 

 bears by some of his men. I have always thought 



* Hornaday. 



