THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN CxOAT. 



847 



day's shooting them. Still, the skin or head of a Mountain 

 Goat can not be classed among the lesser trophies of the 

 sportsman's battle-field; and even in British Columbia, the 

 reputed home of this animal, the white men who have killed 

 one can be easily counted. And then, again, there is a fas- 

 cination about mountain-climbing peculiarly its own. The 

 ever-shifting scenes of rugged peaks and gloomy canons, of 

 stretches of snow, of miniature lakes, of shady groves of 

 cypress and pine, the banks of blooming heather, together 

 with the expectation of starting, at every turn of the tortu- 

 ous trail, not only Goats, but Black and Cinnamon Bears and 

 Deer, all of which animals are found on the summit, ought 

 to repay him for the hard work and the many hair-breadth 

 escapes he has had in making the ascent. 



To the student of natural history, who has a desire to 

 study the habits of this animal, and who may be somewhat 

 anxious concerning its extermination in the early future, 

 I can say that, so far as British Columbia is concerned^ 

 they are on the increase instead of being diminished, 

 for the following reasons: The Indian, except in very 

 remote districts, has almost entirely abandoned the pursuit 

 of the Goat, for the reason that he finds more lucrative 

 employment in working for the whites, and his blankets 

 can now be had with less trouble than in scaling the rocky 

 heights to x^rocure them from the fieece of the White Goat. 

 Then, again, of the white population which may fill up the 

 country, not one in a thousand will ever develop into a Goat- 

 hunter. Mountain-climbing is no fool's-play, and is associ- 

 ated with many a discomfort which will not only vanquish 

 the tenderfoot long before the summit is reached, but will 

 often tax the patience and endurance of the old hunter of 

 the plains. The country may fill up with bustling enter- 

 prises and noisy industries, yet these will have little or no 

 effect on the shaggy inhabitants of the mountain-peaks— 

 the conditions of food and cover for them will remain 

 unchanged. 



Civilization may advance, but its attending influences 

 will play a small part indeed in disturbing the solitude 



