102 CAMP-FIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 



The front feet possess a surprising amount of grasp- 

 ing power. It is natural for a goat leaping high up to 

 hook his front feet over any available edge, and hold fast 

 until his rear hoofs can find a hold, and push up. In 

 the Zoological Park, one of our goats had a great fancy 

 for climbing a tree-box that protected a small red-cedar 

 tree, and perching for minutes upon the tops of the four 

 posts, seven feet from the ground. The posts were cov- 

 ered with wire netting of half-inch mesh. The goat 

 leaped upon the side of this, dug the points of his hoofs 

 against the rough surface, and kept digging until he 

 could reach the top of a post with one foot, and hook it 

 over. After that the rest was easy, and it was always a 

 droll sight to see that creature so poised, calmly survey- 

 ing the landscape. 



The long, straight beard of a male goat always im- 

 parts to the animal an uncanny, and even human-like 

 appearance. When he sits down, dog-fashion, and turns 

 his head first one way and then the other while he gazes 

 admiringly upon the scenery before him, his appearance 

 is strongly suggestive of patriarchal humanity. 



Although the true abiding-place of the mountain 

 goat is from timber-line to the tops of the summit 

 divides, and the precipices which buttress the peaks, it 

 wanders elsewhere with a degree of erratic freedom that 

 in a cliff-dweller is remarkable. It seems very strange 

 for white goats to range far down into the timber, and 

 remain there, but they often do so. In 1904 a large 

 band of goats, reported at thirty or more, came down to 

 Sparwood station on the railway a few miles below 



