THE GOAT 



193 



III. Descent 



Buffon's supposition that the tame goat of 

 Europe comes from a mixture of the camel 

 and the wild goat has been contradicted for 

 many good reasons, and especially because of 

 the fact that the camel and the wild goat, 

 far from consorting in their wild state, avoid 

 each other's society. Buffon's idea had long 

 existed, but it is now generally considered that 

 the Bezoar goat of Asia made its way into 

 Europe by the south. 



Several varieties of the wild goat still exist 

 in Europe, Asia, and Africa, but in Europe 

 they have almost disappeared. In the four- 

 teenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries they 

 were found in vast numbers in the Alps, 

 from Mont Blanc to Salzburg in Styria. They 

 were usually seen in large troops on the high- 

 est mountains, seeking their food near the 

 snow limit. The bucks were very tall, with 

 large horns curving slightly backward. The 

 females were much smaller in size, with small 

 horns. They were and are bold leapers, and 

 will spring without hesitation from one pointed 

 rock to another, across giddy precipices, flee- 

 ing over glaciers, if pursued. 



This interesting animal (known now as the 

 chamois) maintained its abode for a long time 



Goats called '•Hertgeite" 

 Prize winners, 1903 



Fke.nck Milch Goat 



on the mountains of Piedmont, in the vicinity 

 of Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, and the Monte 

 Rosa. The Italian govern- 

 ment has done its best to 

 protect the last remnants 

 of this fine species, but the 

 passion for hunting and its 

 dangers exercises such irre- 

 sistible influence on sports- 

 men that they brook nothing 

 that interferes with its indul- 

 gence. When we read travel- 

 ers' tales by personages often 

 high in rank we are amazed 

 to see with what delight 

 those gentlemen (.') will fire 

 upon a poor chamois, or 

 other wild animal, poised on 

 an inaccessible rock, without 

 other object than to see it 

 fall into a deep abyss, where 

 it lies with broken limbs. 



