THE GOAT. 
o 
O 
HISTORY. 
born when the new shoots and leaves of the vernal season appear. When about to give birth to her young, she seeks some lonely 
place where she may be safe from surprise, usually near some rivulet or spring, proceeding from the glaciers and mountains of 
snow which surround her. The kids, when born, are covered with a short grey fur of hair and wool; their limbs are stout, and 
their bodies light and buoyant; and in a few hours they are able to follow the dam, who vigilantly guards them from the attacks 
of eagles and other beasts of prey. 
These wild and powerful Goats are gregarious, and found in small flocks, but individuals' separate from the herd, and form 
their solitary lairs like the stag and other deer. At the rutting season, desperate conflicts take place for the possession of the 
females, the stronger expelling the weaker, and thus fulfilling a natural provision for preserving the properties of the race, by 
giving the privilege of propagating it to the most vigorous. They inhabit the highest parts of the mountains, near the line of 
perpetual congelation and the limits of vegetable life, and beyond the range of the wildest of the Antelopes. They feed on the 
herbaceous willows, the juniper, the crowberry, and other plants of the higher mountains. In winter they descend to the lower 
slopes of the hills, but never venture into the plains and woods of the level country. They have the senses of sight, smell, and 
hearing, in exquisite perfection. Perched on the loftiest peaks, in the region of clouds and mist, they watch the motions of their 
enemies, and on their approach give signal of danger to their comrades by a shrill whistle, when all betake themselves to the 
neighbouring mountains of rock and everlasting ice, where human foot cannot follow them. Yet they are made the subject of the 
chase by the hardy hunters of the Chamois Antelope, who steal upon them in their lonely lairs, or bring them down by the fatal 
ball from the distant precipice. When brought to bay, it is said they have been known to precipitate themselves upon their pur¬ 
suers, and hurl them down a precipice. Incessant persecution has thinned their numbers, so that in the mountains of Europe, 
where they once abounded, they are now scarcely to be found. 
This creature, so powerful, vigilant, and wild, is yet formed to submit himself to human control. When the kids are taken 
young, they are tamed with facility, and adopt the habits of the domesticated flock. They breed with the tame race, when kept 
together; and it is an old opinion of the shepherds of the Pyrenees and Alps, that Bouquetins sometimes come down from the 
higher mountains and mingle with the females of the flock. The offspring of these supposed unions, are said to be larger and 
more robust than the common Goats, and are selected by the shepherds to be leaders of the flock. 
The Caucasian Ibex, inhabiting the mountains of Taurus and the Caucasus, so nearly resembles the Alpine Ibex, in habits, 
colour, and form, that there seems to be scarcely sufficient reason for regarding it as specifically distinct. The principal diver¬ 
gence is in the horns; but how greatly the horns of the ruminating tribes vary with age and place, is known in other cases; 
and it is altogether probable, that the Ibex of the Caucasus is no other than the Ibex of the Alps of Europe: and the same 
remark applies to the Ibex of the Uralian mountains, termed Siberian. If future observation shall show that these species 
are identical, then the Ibex must be characterized as having a surprising range of country. He is an inhabitant of most of 
the great mountain ranges of Asia and Europe, stretching from the Pyrenees to the Caucasus, and thence, it may be believed, 
eastward to the snowy heights of central Asia, and northward, by the Uralian and other mountain chains, to Siberia and the Sea 
of Okotsk. 
But Africa, where the forms of animal life present themselves under a new aspect, seems likewise to possess its mountain 
Goats. An animal, which has been termed the Nubian or Abyssinian Ibex, has been found at the eastern termination of that 
prodigious chain of mountains, which, more or less continuously, seems to intersect the continent from east to west. It is 
believed, but upon doubtful grounds, that it is the same species which is found in the mountains of Arabia, which is termed 
Jaal by the Arabs. The Abyssinian Ibex is described as being larger than the Ibex of Europe; as having little beard, but a 
ridge of long hairs on the throat and sternum, and a dark line on the anterior part of the legs and along the back; and as having 
immense horns bent in a half circle.* 
The yEgagrus, Capra JEgagrus of Pallas, inhabits the mountain chains of Western Asia, from the Caucasus eastward by the 
countries of the Caspian to an unknown distance, and southward, through the high lands of Persia and Cabul, into Hindostan. It 
is the Pazan of the Persians; and is believed to be the animal which yields the concretion termed Bezoar, to which certain healing 
virtues are ascribed by the Orientals. It resembles the common Goats in its general form; it has very large horns, sometimes 
wanting in the females, of a brown ashy colour, marked with tubercles, and sharp at the anterior edge, bending backward and turn¬ 
ing outward at the points. The hair of the body is a greyish-brown, with a dark ridge along the spine, extending to the termination 
of the tail. The beard, of a rufous colour, is long in the male, but shorter in the female, and coarse hairs extend from the throat 
* Colonel Hamilton Smith. 
