MOUNTAIN GAME, 139 



to determine what they were. White goat 

 invariably run uphill when alarmed, their one 

 idea seeming to be to escape danger by get- 

 ting above it ; for their brute foes are able to 

 overmatch them on anything like level ground, 

 but are helpless against them among the crags. 

 Almost as soon as I saw them these four 

 started up the mountain, nearly in my direc- 

 tion, while I clambered down and across to 

 meet them. They halted at the foot of a 

 cliff, and I at the top, being unable to see 

 them ; but in another moment they came 

 bounding and cantering up the sheer rocks, 

 not moving quickly, but traversing the most 

 seemingly impossible places by main strength 

 and sure-footedness. As they broke by me, 

 some thirty yards off, I fired two shots at the 

 rearmost, an old buck, somewhat smaller than 

 the one I had just killed ; and he rolled down 

 the mountain dead. Two of the others, a 

 yearling and a kid, showed more alarm than 

 their elders, and ran off at a brisk pace. 

 The remaining one, an old she, went off a 

 hundred yards, and then deliberately stopped 

 and turned round to gaze at us for a couple 

 of minutes ! Verily the white goat is the 

 fool-hen among beasts of the chase. 



Having skinned and cut off the heads we 

 walked rapidly onwards, slanting down the 

 mountain side, and then over and down the 

 pass of the game trails ; for it was growing 

 late and we wished to get well down among 

 the timber before nightfall. On the way an 

 eagle came soaring over head, and I shot at 

 it twice without success. Having once killed 

 an eagle on the wing with a rifle, I always 



