THE GOAT. 191 



self, and the extraordinary precision with which 

 every movement is executed. His judgment is 

 so perfect that he scarcely ever makes a mistake. 

 Necessity has been his grim schoolmaster ; for it 

 is of course easy to see that, when leaping from 

 ledge to ledge along the face of a precipice, the 

 least error in calculating either his distance or 

 the amount of muscular force to be exercised 

 would instantly prove fatal. 



This is a branch of the study of natural 

 history which has a peculiar fascination for me, 

 and which, the more I think of it, fills me with 

 admiration and amazement. What a mathe- 

 matician the goat would make if he could only 

 tell us the process by means of which he per- 

 forms his feats ! A Senior Wrangler or a 

 Smith's prizeman would be nowhere beside him. 

 Let me endeavour, very briefly, to point out 

 the nature of certain problems which he is in 

 the habit of solving with absolute accuracy at 

 a moment's notice. Supposing a goat, follow- 

 ing a new path, has to take a leap so as to 

 alight on a pinnacle or narrow crag overhang- 

 ing some abyss. First of all, he must estimate 

 the distance to be traversed, and having got 

 it — whether by trigonometry or by some cap- 



