liiii. i;>, 1890. J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



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scalp, with horns attached, of one of these animals nailed 

 lip over the door of a butcher's shop in Denver, but could 

 obtain no details as to where the fragment came from. 

 In Vol. V. of the "Geographical Survey West of the 

 100th Meridian," which is the Report on Zoology by Drs. 

 Elliott Cones and H. C. Yarrow, it is stated that one in- 

 dividual of this species was seen in Colorado by Lieut. 

 Marshall's party, but unfortunately no details are given 

 as to either tbe time or place of the occurrence. 



Much more direct and satisfactory evidence than the 

 foregoing is found in the testimony of an old hunter, Mr. 

 John Willis, now of Thompson Falls, Montana, who has 

 actually killed an individual of this species near Canon 

 City, Colorado, as detailed in the following letter ad- 

 dressed to Mr. Grinnell : 



"It was in the winter of L879, in February some time, 

 that Chas. Snow, Reece Gephaertand myself were hunt- 

 ing about twenty miles from Canon City, Colo., when we 

 saw something white going up the mountains. Snow 

 and I went after them, not knowing that there was such 

 a thing as a white goat in the mountains. They seemed 

 to be traveling, and were going south toward some very 

 high peaks. Snow went around to head them off and 

 left me to follow them. They soon saw we were after 

 them, and got up in some cliffs and looked down on me. 

 I shot and made a scratch shot, and killed what I thought 

 was a small one, but it was about three years old, a 

 nanny goat which would have had a kid in the spring. 

 When I shot it was standing out on a point of rocks. 

 The bullet struck it behind the shoulder, and it fell three 

 hundred feet down the cliff. I dressed it and took the 

 meat back to camp, but left the hide where I dressed it. 

 These were the only goats I ever saw in Colorado, and 

 everybody told us that there was no such thing in the 

 mountain, so I never told of it till I saw Mr. Roosevelt. 



"Snow was from Illinois somewhere and Gephaert 

 from Toledo, O. They both saw the band. There must 

 have been fifteen or twenty of them from the amount of 

 sign they made. 



"I do not know the name of the range of mountains 

 where we found them, but it was on the west or south 

 side of the Arkansas River. I have been in all the Terri- 

 tories south, and never saw or heard of goats, except in 

 this case, till I came to Montana. They are very plenty 

 in some of the mountains here." 



The locality above referred to seems to be on or near 

 the parallel of 38° 30', and perhaps in or near the Sangre 

 de Christo range of mountains, but it seems not unlikely 

 that the white antelope may occasionally be found in the 

 high mountains down to or beyond the northern bound- 

 ary of New Mexico. 



Another authentic record of the capture of this species 

 in Colorado was first brought to our notice by Mr. W. N. 

 Byers, of Denver. This individual was killed in October, 

 1884, by Mr. Egbert Johnson, now of that city. Mr. John- 

 son has kindly given us the following account of this 

 capture: 



"The location was on the southeast side of Mt. Evans, 

 about fifty miles west of Denver and about one-half mile 

 below timber line. I had just finished skinning a bear 

 and was starting for camp, when I saw a band of moun- 

 tain sheep coming down the side of the mountain toward 

 a spring where I had just skinned the bear. In this 

 bunch I saw what I at first thought was a white Mexican 

 goat, but when they got within 150 or 200yds. I saw that 

 it was much larger, and the horns were smaller and dif- 

 ferent. I decided to shoot it to see what it was, as 1 had 

 no idea of mountain goats in this section. I killed it, 

 and my first thought was to skin it for the taxidermist, 

 but I soon decided that I would not have time, as I was 

 fully one hour's walk from camp with no trail and night 

 coming on, I knew that if I left it till morning either 

 bears, wildcats or some other animals were liable to de- 

 stroy it, so I took the hide for a rug, leaving my bear skin 

 in a little tree till the next day. The goat was larger 

 than any sheep in the bunch; would weigh undressed, I 

 should judge, about 1751bs. The hoofs and horns were 

 black; horns about Sin. long, hair from 4 to 6in. long and 

 extending to within some 7 or Sin. of the feet; from there 

 down not more than A or Jin. long. His teeth were nearly 

 all gone, and he was very poor. The ends of the horns 

 were worn off, and the hide along the back and on the 

 hip joints showed a good deal of cream color, giving 

 every appearance of being very old. I decided that lie 

 was a long way from home, as it was the first of the kind 

 that I had ever seen or heard of in this country, after hunt- 

 ing here for over thirty years. When I went back for 

 the bear pelt, I hung the head up in a tree, intending to 

 return and get it, but have never been on that side of the 

 mountain since," 



Passing northward along the eastern flanks of the 

 Roeky Mountains to Wyoming Territory we find no sat. 



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o ioo aoo 3oo 400 soo" |VMLE& <fy 

 1111 Limits outside of wi.icli the VYii-ite (i ml •](.. s no* exist. 



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