MOUNTAIN SPORTS. 
293 
beardless, is hairy like a deer, not woolly, with huge spiral horns, 
and which is believed to be identical with the Argali, Ovis Am¬ 
mon , of Northern Asia, and the steppes of Siberia. 
The confusion to which I have alluded will be better under¬ 
stood by a reference to the synonyms prefixed to the article, un¬ 
der the head of Rocky Mountain Goat, at page 182 of the pre¬ 
sent volume, quoted from Godman’s American Natural History, 
in which it is variously called Ovis Montana , or Mountain Sheep ; 
Capra Montana , or Mountain Gooi ; and lastly, Antilope Ameri¬ 
cana , or American Antelope ; a totally different animal, fully de¬ 
scribed at pages 178 and 262 of this volume. 
The discrepancy I discovered readily, but I could not in my 
then state of uncertainty, and under the difficulty I suffered, of 
procuring good authorities, venture on correction or even sugges¬ 
tion on my own part. The books of regular natural history are, 
for all that I can ascertain, silent on the subject; and to render 
the difficulty of ascertaining the truth greater, so rare is the 
short-horned, shaggy, bearded Goat, as compared with the Big¬ 
horn, that a highly intelligent hunter from the far West, who has 
traversed and retraversed the Rocky Mountains, and is familiar 
with every other species of animal hunted, had never seen this 
creature, and was ignorant of its very existence, though he had 
killed the Ahsahta, or Bighorn, in great numbers. 
My attention was first called to the actual confusion of two dif¬ 
ferent animals under one title, by the following extremely kind 
and courteous letter from a gentleman of St. Catharine’s, C. W., 
to whom I take this opportunity of returning my best thanks, and 
to whom I should have here nominally recorded my obligation, 
had I not feared that it might be disagreeable to him to see his 
name in print without direct authority from himself. 
St. Catharine's , C. TV., July 5, 1S50. 
H. W. Herbert, Esq., 
Dear Sir—In reading your delightful and instructive Work of 
“ Field Sports,” I find at p. 292, vol. 2, the following remark 
with reference to the Rocky Mountain Goat— u No very accu¬ 
rate description exists, so far as I can discover, even of its ap- 
