n 4 CAMP-FIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 



as its eyes are, a grizzly is very keen-sighted; and I can 

 see no reason for believing that the goat is of dull vision 

 simply because he is not ever ready to run at the slight- 

 est alarm. 



More than once we had positive proof that the 

 mountain goat does not take alarm and run from man 

 the moment his presence is detected. On the day I 

 killed my grizzly bear, Charlie Smith and I rode to 

 Goat Pass to inspect our cache of provisions and other 

 things, half in the hope of finding a silver-tip in the act 

 of robbing us. Besides ourselves and our two horses, the 

 dog was with us, and between men, horses and dog there 

 certainly was a variety of what Mr. Seton aptly calls 

 " man scent." 



When we reached our cache, from which we over- 

 looked the head gorge of Goat Creek, we saw a billy 

 goat feeding on the fearfully steep declivity which comes 

 down from Phillips Peak. 



"That would be our goat, if we wanted him, 

 Charlie." 



" You could surely knock him from here," said 

 Charlie. " I wonder if he ain't ever going to go! " 



" Can it be that he don't see us? " 



" If he ain't blind he must see us; and unless he's 

 got an awful cold in his head, he must smell us, too." 



For fully five minutes, I should think, that goat kept 

 on feeding. At last, however, as we were mounting to 

 ride on, he left off, and started to climb on up the slope, 

 not exactly in alarm, but in a state of what judges call 

 " reasonable doubt." 



