72 THE MOUNTAIN GOAT

would huff and make faces and threaten me with their
horns, perhaps advance a few steps and make all sorts of
hostile demonstrations. One old billy that I approached
very closely was particularly warlike; his eyes fairly
glittered with wrath, and he made several little jumps
in my direction with his head down. There was no doubt
in my mind that if I went any closer, or even stayed where
I was, he would send me flying down the bluff up which
I had come. Therefore, not wanting to shoot him, it
seemed to me unwise to carry on the argument any further,
so I beat a retreat and he was left the victor.

The regular habitat of goats is on the high rugged
mountains that have peaks exteriding several thousand
feet above timber line and whose sides are broken up into
a mass of huge basins, precipices, rock slides, steep slopes,
and razor-edged ridges. Many of the mountains that
goats revel in are too precipitous for any other kind of
game; even sheep will not venture on them if they can
help it. But all the country where goats are found is
not like this, as there are many goat ranges in the interior,
especially in the Cassiar district, that are extremely easy
to travel on. Of course on the easiest of them there are
bound to be cliffs or bluffs or some rough ground not far
away for them to take refuge on, but it is usually quite
easy to keep away from such places. Therefore it is not
necessary, aS is popularly supposed, to have wonderful
nerve and extraordinary ability in scaling vertical walls to
kill goats. You can, if you like, go scrambling about
among the bluffs on the coast ranges and shoot goats that
will fall into places where you can never reach them ;
you can take all sorts of risks of your life if you are fond
of mountaineering, or if you become excited or careless ;
but it is not at all necessary. In many parts of the interior
there are ranges where you can hunt this species of game
without any more chances of losing your life than you
would when going for an ordinary stroll in the country
—J have even hunted them on horseback—and not nearly
so many as you would from motors in some cities. It
is simply a matter of knowing where there are some of