io8 CAMP-FIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 



This is the greatest array of species that I ever found 

 in the stomach of one animal. It shows that in choosing 

 his food the goat is a broad-minded creature, with a 

 versatile and vigorous appetite. No wonder his sides are 

 round. It is probable that in spring the goat's bill of 

 fare includes many species of plants not in the above 

 list, and that throughout the year it varies greatly. In 

 spring the flesh of this animal is so strongly flavored by 

 the wild onion, then greedily fed upon, that it is quite 

 unpalatable; but by September that flavor has totally 

 disappeared, and goat's flesh, cooked and seasoned with 

 a modicum of intelligence, is then as good as venison of 

 the same age. 



In winter, goats sometimes, but not frequently 

 browse upon the twigs of coniferous trees. Mr. Phillips 

 has seen evergreen twigs that have been bitten off for 

 food, when the snow lay deep on the mountains ; and he 

 says that in winter the goats go down into the green 

 timber to look for food. 



Judging by what we saw in the Elk River mountains, 

 the mountain goat avoids the drifting snows of winter 

 by choosing for its sleeping-places the knifelike edges 

 of high " hogbacks " between mountain peaks. And yet, 

 over those ridges the wind sweeps with a fierceness and 

 frigidity which it seems no living creature could long 

 withstand. It is doubtful if the big-horn ever lies down 

 to rest and to sleep on a hogback over which the wind is 

 blowing seventy miles an hour, with a temperature of 

 forty degrees below zero; but the goat does this very 

 thing. We saw a dozen ridge summits, paved with their 



