132 
ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT. 
tion of articles very dissimilar in their nature, and requires much care tc 
distribute them in their proper order. The fleece under consideration is 
wholly fine. That on the fore part of the skin has all the apparent quali- 
ties of wool. On the back part it very much resembles cotton. Ihe 
whole fleece is much mixed with hairs, and on those parts where the hairs 
are long and pendant, there is almost no -wool.” 
“ Mr. Drummond saw no Goats on the eastern declivity of the mountains, 
near the sources of the Elk river, where the sheep are numerous, but he 
learned from the Indians that they frequent the steepest precipices, and 
are much more difficult to procure than the sheep. Their manners are 
said to greatly resemble those of the domestic Goat. The exact limits of 
the range of this animal have not been ascertained, but it probably extends 
from the fortieth to the sixty-fourth or sixty-fifth degree of latitude. It is 
common on the elevated part of the Rocky Mountain range that gives 
origin to four great tributaries to as many different seas, viz. the Macken- 
zie, the Columbia, the Nelson, and the Missouri rivers.” — F. B. A., p. 269. 
The flesh of this species is hard and dry, and is not so much relished as 
that of the Big-Horn, the Elk, &c., by the hunters or travellers who have 
journeyed towards the Pacific across the wild ranges of mountains 
inhabited by these animals. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
The Rocky Mountain Goat inhabits the most elevated portions of the 
mountains from which it derives its name, where it dwells between the 
fortieth and sixtieth or sixty-fourth degree of north latitude. It is also 
found on the head waters of the Mackenzie, Columbia, and Missouri rivers. 
Mr. Mackenzie informs us that the country near the sources of the Muddy 
river (Maria’s river of Lewis and Clark), Saskatchewan, and Athabasca, 
is inhabited by these animals, but they are said to be scarcer on the eastern 
slopes of the Rocky Mountains than on the western. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
It is believed by some naturalists that Fathers Piccolo and De Salva- 
tierra discovered this animal on the higher mountains of California. 
Vancouver brought home a mutilated skin which he obtained on the 
northwest coast of America. Lewis and Clark (as we have already men- 
tioned) obtained skins in 1804. 
In 1816 M. De Blainville published the first scientific account of it. 
Mr. Ord in 1817 described one of the skins brought home by Lewis and 
