KILLING A GOAT LEADS TO TROUBLE 81

the meantime, I was in sight of the same place and dis-
covered that there were three great, gaping crevices,
across which I had leisurely strolled. Nothing but a
rotten snow bridge, which temporarily bridged them, had
kept me from being down at the bottom of one of them
until doomsday.

The particular incident, however, that made me so
wary of banks of snow and ice also happened when I
was prospecting and in need of meat. In company with
a man called Blackman, I had been busy most of the day
digging at some mineral we had found high up above
timber line. About the time we were thinking of stopping
work for the day Blackman discovered a goat on the
skyline, about 1,500 feet above us. Having a healthy
appetite and a great longing for meat, which we had not
had for some time, he begged me to go and kill it. Much
against my will, as it was a heavy climb up there and the
day’s work had been fatiguing, I finally consented, on his
agreeing that he would come with me and help to carry
the meat back.

By the time the summit was reached the goat had gone
a long way down the other side to where there were a
number of steep snow banks and rock slides that in one
place ended in a sheer drop of several hundred feet.

Leaving Blackman to keep watch and signal me if I
lost sight of my quarry, I went on down by myself, and
eventually got to within easy range of my proposed
victim, which, by that time, had lain down on the top
of one of the snow banks.

From my situation I could not see lower than where
the goat was, and made a miscalculation as to the position,
for, instead of being over a bench, he was right on one
of the snow banks that ended in a cliff. If this had been
known to me I would never have shot him. As it was,
the shot was fired, and though I killed him instantly, he
began to roll. As soon as I rose to my feet my mistake
was obvious, but as it chanced, right at the very brow
of the precipice, rose a small butte: it was only a few
feet high, not more than ten feet wide, but large enough