164 A FLOCK OF GOATS. 



comprehend the danger which threatens them, than they 

 dart forward, and sweep past the vision of the hunter 

 with greater velocity than a bird on the wing. 



Every evening, the troops of wild goats cautiously quit 

 the precipitous plateaux, descend into the plains which 

 extend at the foot of the mountains, and march in single 

 file to quench their thirst at the nearest spring. But let 

 the slightest peril threaten the herd, and the male, who 

 marches at the head, utters a shrill cry, and suddenly, 

 wheeling completely round, like a well-disciplined bat- 

 talion, the animals scamper away with the rapidity of 

 lightning, the male always keeping in the rear, ready to 

 confront the attacks of the hunter or of any other enemy, 

 as frequently occurs. 



I remember to have heard Colonel Kearney one day 

 relate, that during his journey across the prairies, having 

 pursued a flock of seven wild goats, he succeeded in get- 

 ting up with them, against the wind, on a height over- 

 hanging a waterfall, whose clash and clang had deadened 

 the sound of his footsteps. The male of the flock stood 

 sentinel, and promenaded around the rock in the middle 

 of six goats. Suddenly the wind changed, and brought 

 to the wild goat the human odour, betraying the colonel's 

 presence. A sharp shrill noise was immediately heard, 

 and the seven animals disappeared afar like a vision. To 

 run to the summit of the rock which rose about two 

 hundred paces in front of him, to cast an anxious glance 

 over the surrounding country, was for Colonel Kearney 

 the affair of a moment; but the animals had already 

 cleared a space of five hundred yards, and when the 

 panting and exhausted hunter arrived at the point where 



