WILD-GOATS 



I HAVE often thought that for those who have a taste for 

 deer-stalking, without the opportunity, it might be no bad 

 substitute to have a flock or two of goats upon a remote 

 range of hills. The idea suggested itself to me from 

 having heard and seen a good deal of the nature and 

 habits of a few kept wild upon an island in Loch Lomond. 

 These goats, originally a breed between the Welsh and 

 Highland, were very large, and the oldest inhabitant does 

 not recollect when they were first introduced. After 

 having been completely left to themselves for a few 

 generations, they became very cunning and suspicious, 

 always haunting the most out-of-the-way craggy places 

 they could find ; and one precipice in particular has been 

 called from time immemorial Crap-na-gour, or Hill of the 

 Goats. They have now rather deteriorated, from the fine 

 old wild ones having been killed off, and some of the 

 tame kind substituted to cross the breed. The hair of 

 some of the old u Billies" of the wild breed was eighteen 

 inches long ; and I have contrasted a horn of the last fine 



