THE MOUNTAIN GOAT AS WE SAW HIM 101 



appear to be all black, but when nine months old the iris 

 assumes its true color. 



The hoofs are like big, twin masses of india-rubber, 

 a ball of soft rubber, encased in a strong shell of hard 

 rubber. It is chiefly the soft rubber which enables this 

 strange animal to climb as it does. The shell of hard 

 rubber is thin, and around the front half of the hoof it 

 forms an edge which may be sharp or blunt, according 

 to the wear upon it. On the front hoofs, this edge always 

 is more worn than on the rear hoofs, because the former 

 do the hardest work. The bottom of a goat's hoof is 

 very different from that of a mountain sheep, the former 

 being concave near the toe, and convex at the heel, while 

 that of the sheep is a hollow cup, with sharp edges. 



I was rather pleased at finding out the trick by 

 which a goat descends a dangerously steep incline. Over 

 smooth rock that stands at an angle of forty-five degrees, 

 on which no man can stand, much less move about, 

 a mountain sheep goes down pell-mell, slipping, sliding 

 and plunging almost helplessly until it reaches some kind 

 of a stopping-place. 



Not so the goat. I once induced a captive goat to 

 descend a plank inclined at forty-five degrees, and he 

 tobogganed on his rear hoofs, with his monstrous dew- 

 claws pressed hard upon the wood, and his hindlegs held 

 quite stiff. His hocks were within three inches of the 

 wood and his rubber-like dew-claws acted as first-class 

 brakes. His front hoofs guided his course, and took 

 advantage of every rough spot, but the animal did not 

 slide upon them, as he did upon the posterior pair. 



