ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT 41 
I fully believe that the parent stock of our mountain sheep, 
caribou, moose, wolves and bears came from Asia by this 
route. 
Tue Rocxy Mountain Goat, or Wurre Goat,’ is the only 
American representative of the numerous species of wild 
goats, ibexes and other goat-like animals so numerous through- 
out the Old World from Japan to India, southern Europe and 
northern Africa. Thus far without one exception all the ru- 
mors of ‘“ibex” that have come from Wyoming, Colorado, 
Montana and British Columbia have proven entirely without 
foundation. In one case a Colorado hunter discovered a 
small band of once-tame goats running wild and reported 
it to Recreation magazine, with a photograph of a mounted 
specimen. It is reasonably certain that no representative 
of the genus Capra inhabits North America or ever has done 
so during historic times, and all stories of “‘ibexes”’ in America 
may be put down as chargeable to young mountain sheep 
rams or ewes with extra-large horns. 
The only use or value thus far found in the Mountain 
Goat is as “‘game”’ for sportsmen who like difficult and dan- 
gerous tasks. With but few exceptions, it inhabits the grassy 
belt of the high mountains just above timber-line, and it 
particularly loves the dangerous ice-covered slopes and “hog- 
backs’? over which only the boldest hunters dare follow it. 
This, however, specially applies to its haunts in the Rocky 
Mountains and the Coast Range. On the coast of British 
Columbia, the White Goat sometimes descends so near to 
tide-water that more than one specimen has been shot from 
a canoe. 
1 Q-re-am'nos mon-tan’us. 
