THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
is conncected,”°* is a favorite game animal in its region, especially 
on the Elburz range. 
“The relations of the goat to mankind,” remarks Shaler, ‘tare in cer- 
tain ways peculiar. The creature has long been subjugated, probably 
Domestic having come into the human family before the dawn of his- 
Goat. tory. It has been almost as widely disseminated among bar- 
barian and civilized peoples alike as the sheep. It readily cleaves to the 
household and exhibits much more intelligence than the other members 
of our flocks and herds. It yields good milk, the flesh is edible, though 
in the old animals not savory, and the hair can be made to vary in a larger 
measure than any of our animals which are shorn. Yet this creature has 
never obtained the place in relation to man to which it seems entitled. 
Only here and there is it kept in considerable numbers or made the basis 
of extensive industries. The reason for this seems to be that these ani- 
mals cannot readily be kept in flocks in the manner of sheep. There 
seems reason to believe, also, that they cannot easily be made to vary in other 
characteristics except their hairy covering at the will of the breeder, and so 
varieties cannot be formed... The present rapid variations in the physi- 
cal characteristics of our sheep, which are induced by the breeder’s skill, 
make it evident that we are far from having attained the maximum profit 
from these creatures. The goats also give promise, when selective work 
is carefully done upon them, of giving much more than they now afford to 
the uses of mankind; but from neither of these forms is there reason to 
hope... for any considerable gain in the intellectual qualities.” 2" 
This brings us to the ibexes, which are simply large wild 
goats with horns that stand nearly straight up in a scimiter- 
like curve, and have heavy ridges across the front. 
The ibex proper, the bouquetin of the French and 
steinbok of the Germans, once roamed throughout the Alps, 
but now remains only as a few preserved specimens in the 
Piedmont valleys. Two other species inhabit Abyssinia and 
the rough heights of Syria; but the finest ibex is the Himalayan, 
standing forty inches tall, and having horns sometimes fifty 
inches long. These dwell upon the heights of all central Asia, 
and maintain themselves in goodly numbers in spite of wild 
dogs, leopards, hunters, and avalanches. The same mountains 
260 
Ibex. 
