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78 THE MOUNTAIN GOAT AS A SPORTING ANIMAL

at, when it is apt to be as wary as any other animal.
Where goats have not been disturbed, only very ordinary
precautions are required. It is not advisable to give
them your wind, though I do not believe the scent of a
man always bothers them, and you must keep out of
sight when you begin to get near. You can, however,
walk in full view at a quarter of the distance you could of
a sheep, and, if you crawl slowly, let yourself be seen
at quite close range. In fact, you can take all sorts of
liberties with goats that you would not dare to take with
any other game.

On some of the northern mountains there are sheep
that have never seen or had the scent of man, and then
they, too, are comparatively easy to stalk. But even the
least wary of sheep keep a constant watch for some enemy,
such as a wolf or other beast of prey, and under no cir-
cumstances whatever can you show yourself with im-
punity, or hope to get within twenty yards of them.
With goats it is another matter; they pick out some
favoured spot where their instinct tells them they are
safe from any enemy they have knowledge of, and there
they lie, keeping no watch at all. Under such circum-
stances you can occasionally crawl to within a few feet
of them, and a friend of mine actually caught a nanny
and tied her up. He did the whole thing without assist-
ance, though he told me he thought for a time he was
going to come off second best in the struggle. He did it
just for the fun of the thing, and, after taking a few
photographs of the captive, gave the unfortunate beast
her liberty.

I have never attempted the feat of catching an un-
wounded goat, though I once crawled right into the middle
of a band, and was so close to one that it might have been
possible to accomplish it if the thought had occurred to
me. At that time I was prospecting on some mountains
a few miles back from the Skeena River, and, being
badly in need of fresh meat, went out to kill a young
billy.

The mountain on which I expected to find my game had