CHAPTER VIII 



THE MOUNTAIN GOAT AS WE SAW HIM 



A Mountain Goat's Paradise General Character of the Animal Its 

 Place in Nature Not an "Antelope" Description Distribution 

 Food Sleeping-Places Accidents in Snow-Slides Swimming 

 Stupid or Not Stupid Courage A Philosophic Animal Affection 

 Fighting Powers A Goat Kills a Grizzly Bear-Shy Goats 

 The Tragedy of the Self-Trapped Goats. 



" On dizzy ledge of mountain wall, above the timber-line, 

 I hear the riven slide-rock fall toward the stunted pine. 

 Upon the paths I tread secure no foot dares follow me, 

 For I am master of the crags, and march above the scree." 



The Cragmaster. 



OF the thirty days spent by us in the home of the 

 mountain goat, two only were devoted to hunting goats 

 to shoot them. Scarcely a day passed without at least 

 one flock of goats in sight. We saw two hundred and 

 thirty-nine individuals, challenging all repeaters, and 

 carefully eliminating those seen a second or third time. 

 It was because we shot little that we saw much. 



The high country between the Elk and the Bull 

 Rivers is indeed a mountain goat's paradise, and what I 

 there saw of that strange creature gave me an entirely 

 new set of impressions regarding its character and habits. 

 We studied goats alive, we photographed them, shot 



9* 



