XII. 



THE BALANCE OF NATURE. 



There is no beast more tlirifty and hardy than 

 the common goat; and yet, Sir Joseph Hooker 

 tells us, harmless and idyllic animal as it seems, it 

 has probably occasioned far greater ruin and des- 

 olation in the world than war and pestilence put 

 together. At first sight this seems a very hard 

 saying, though, when we come to look closely 

 into its grounds and true meaning, it is one of 

 the most remarkable observations ever made upon 

 the occult influences perpetually working unseen 

 in the balanced and nicely adjusted economy of 

 nature. For the goat has destroyed whole 

 regions of forest-land, and altered for the worse 

 the once genial climate of extensive districts. It 

 is the habit of shee}), gazelles, and most antelopes 

 to browse upon grass and other low succulent her- 

 bage which springs again as quickly as it is grazed 

 down. But the goat, essentially a mountain ani- 

 mal, accustomed to rockv hillsides, where soft turf 

 and greensward are quite uid<nown, feeds natu- 

 rally upon the dry leaves of the shrubs and bushes 



that spring among tlie crannies of its native crags. 



133 



