AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 243 



ains, yet lie sometimes ranges on more favorable 

 ground, and if the sportsman be so fortunate as to 

 find him there he may be killed and saved. They 

 range somewhat lower in winter than in summer, 

 but never even then venture down into the canons 

 or valleys, as do all the other large mountain ani- 

 mals. They only come down upon the lower peaks 

 and ridges, and remain about the rocky walls, which 

 are so precipitous that the snow can not lie on them 

 to any considerable depth. Their power of climbing 

 over and walking on these almost perpendicular 

 rock walls is utterly astounding. They will walk 

 along the side of an upright 'projecting ledge that 

 towers hundreds of feet above and below them 

 where a shelf projects not more than four or five 

 inches wide. They will climb straight up an almost 

 perpendicular wall, if only slightly rough and irre- 

 gular, so that they can get a chance to hold on with 

 their spongy hoofs here and there. And they seem 

 to select these difficult passes in many instances 

 when a good, easy passage could be had to the place 

 to which they are bound by going a little further 

 around. They seem to delight in scaling a danger- 

 ous cliff as a courageous boy does in climbing the 

 tallest tree. I once saw where a goat had walked 

 straight up over a smooth fiat slab of granite ten 

 feet wide, that laid at an angle of about fifty degrees, 

 and that was covered with about two inches of wet 

 snow and slush. I could not climb up it with moc- 

 casins on my feet, and no dog could have followed 

 him there. This faculty is accounted for by the 

 peculiar shape and quality of their hoofs before 

 described. 



