HOOFS WELL ADAPTED FOR CLIMBING 67

goats ascending or descending or working their way along
the face of a precipice that you can work up any admira-
tion for them and begin to get an idea of what a marvellous
store of agility and suppleness they have. To them such
things as nerves are unknown. It matters not whether
they are standing five or five thousand feet high. As
long as they have a few square inches to plant their
wonderful hoofs on, they are quite at their ease. It has
been told me that they do fall at times and kill them-
selves, but out of the thousands I have watched, not one
has ever seemed to be in the slightest trouble or shown
any hesitation or uneasiness, though climbing what you
would think would be utterly impossible places.

The hoofs of a goat are big and heavy for the size of
the animal, but if you examine them carefully you will
at once notice how admirably they are adapted for the
work they are called upon to do—they are blunt and
stubby, with the underneath part hollowed at the toes
and a heavy rubber pad at the heel which, aided by
enormous dew claws, are most suitable for descending
steep places—they are essentially adapted to climbing.
On the other hand, the hoofs of a sheep are far smaller,
the edges sharp, the toes more pointed, and the bottoms
hollow ; they are far better for speed than climbing.

Goats are of a placid, peaceful disposition, and though
they will butt one another in a mild manner when a band
of them are at the ‘“‘ licks”? in the spring months, they
never seem to fight in earnest, even in the “‘ rutting”
season. Of their actions in the ‘rutting’? season my
knowledge is not great, as, on account of depth of snow,
my opportunities for watching them at such a period have
not been frequent.

The old billies wander off and live by themselves, though
sometimes two or three will chum up together, until the
“rutting”? season commences in November, The nan-
nies, kids, and young males live in bands of various
sizes. As many as forty or fifty may be seen within an
area of a hundred yards, usually split up into bunches of
eight or ten. On one occasion I counted eighteen lying

6

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