Mountain Goat 



rather humped and head carried below their level, nose hairy, a short 

 beard on the chin. Horns slender in both sexes and curving slightly 

 backward, black, as are also the hoofs. (Illustration facing p. 69.) 

 Range. Higher Rocky and Cascade Mountains to Alaska. 



The higher, almost inaccessible slopes of the British Columbian 

 Mountains are the stronghold of the mountain goats. There usually 

 above the timber-line, amid the wildest scenery, and surrounded by 

 glaciers and precipices they live practically unmolested except by the 

 insatiable hunters. Living in such isolation they are in little need of 

 speed or agility and are said to be rather slow and stupid beasts, easily 

 secured if the surroundings admit of an approach. 



The mountain goat presents many points of interest. In the 

 first place it is not a goat but rather an outlying member of the great 

 antelope tribe to which by the way our American "antelope" does 

 not belong. The nearest relatives of the goat are the serow of the 

 Himalayas and the chamois of the Alps, though the long fleecy coat 

 and goat-like beard give it a very different aspect. 



In colour too it is peculiar, being the only pure white ruminant 

 animal known; this is an excellent protection, rendering it practically 

 invisible during the snows of winter, though at other seasons it would 

 seem to render it equally conspicuous. 



In describing his experience in pursuit of this animal Frederic 

 Irland writes: "The most charming innocent creatures that I met 

 in the Cascade Mountains were the white goats. What do you 

 think of a wild animal which, after he knows you are on his 

 track, will stop and turn back, to peer around the corner and see 

 what you are ? These stately animals, with their long white aprons, 

 coal black eyes, and sharp little horns, really seem to me too 

 unsophisticated to shoot. At Ashcroft and Lillooet people had told 

 me to get my hand in by shooting a goat and then perhaps I 

 could improve by getting a sheep. As usual we were seeking what 

 we might destroy, though as a fact we let many chances go. 

 We had nearly burst our hearts by climbing for an hour or two 

 up the mansard roof of North America and high above the deer 

 pasture. The winter on the mountain tops had driven the game 

 down and sent the bears to their winter dens. We had found 

 sheep tracks and were following along to see where they led, 

 when suddenly we saw four white animals on the edge of an 

 abyss of the kind which Dor^ has portrayed in illustrating Dante. 



