108 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [13:3— Mar., 1917 



THE GOAT IN HISTORY 



The goat has been of use to man from the earliest time. Just 

 when or where this animal was subdued and domesticated is 

 not known, but the pages of recorded history, even from the first, 

 have made mention of it in many important connections. The 

 Old Testament, the writings of the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, 

 the records of the Chinese, the Sanskrit scroll, and the Prakrit 

 legend, all make mention of J;he goat. There was a time when the 

 great men of the earth named their riches in the number of goats 

 they owned; we find traces of this method of rating, even in this 

 country as early as 1640; John Joslyn writing in Massachusetts 

 in that year made this interesting statement, "He was counted a 

 nobody who had no goats." It is of interest also to note that in 

 Spain the Pleiades have from time immemorial been called the 

 Seven Little Goats. Today they are found everywhere on the face 

 of the globe where the climate is suited to their extremely flexible 

 nature, in very hot countries, and in very cold regions as well. 

 Economically, they are in many countries today the most import- 

 ant of all animals. Greece has one-hundred and twenty goats 

 to every hundred of its population, and little wonder when we 

 consider that the yield of perfectly good wholesome milk from 

 these animals is greater than that of the cow, when the goat is 

 measured comparatively. Although this is intended for a dis- 

 cussion of the domesticated goat, it will not be out of place here 

 to say a word or two of some of the wild relatives of this beneficial 

 animal, one of which is found in the United States, the 

 Rocky Mountain Goat (Oreamnos montanus). This is the only 

 representative of this great family of quadrupeds, Ungulates, 

 now found in North America in a wild state. It is a noble if not 

 handsome member of its family; it is covered with long white 

 hair that lengthens out on the breast into a flowing "apron"; 

 the shapely eye, straw-yellow in color is set in a fine-cut head 

 that bears a pair of thin, black, curved horns. It is the characteris- 

 tic manner of carrying the head, generally below the broad 

 shoulders, that inspired the Indians of the mountainous West 

 to name our great white goat, "the little white buffalo." Some 

 writers have spoken of this goat as being extremely stupid and 

 dull, mistaking the confiding fearlessness of the animal for want 

 of intelligent keenness. Another writer though, Mr. Frederick 

 Irland, more ably describes it as being "the most charming and 



