Musk-ox, bison, sheep and goat . d fool him about no goat with longhair. Indeed, when I at last laid my own goattrophies, heads and hides, before the eyes of myold friend John Yancey of the Yellowstone Park,they gave him a genuine sensation. He hadwasted small faith in any tales of goat. He staredat them, he touched them, he lifted them, hecould not get over it; they caused me to rise inhis esteem, and he refused to believe that circum-venting a mountain sheep is a far more skilfulexploit. He, too, like myself, had supposed thatin some way this notion about goats could betraced to mountain she
Musk-ox, bison, sheep and goat . d fool him about no goat with longhair. Indeed, when I at last laid my own goattrophies, heads and hides, before the eyes of myold friend John Yancey of the Yellowstone Park,they gave him a genuine sensation. He hadwasted small faith in any tales of goat. He staredat them, he touched them, he lifted them, hecould not get over it; they caused me to rise inhis esteem, and he refused to believe that circum-venting a mountain sheep is a far more skilfulexploit. He, too, like myself, had supposed thatin some way this notion about goats could betraced to mountain sheep, and that they were oneand the same animal. I found this error spreadeastward to great cities. In the front hall of a certain club there used tohang — and still hangs, for all I know — the headof a white goat. I stood near it one day in 1894or 1895, while two gentlemen were looking at had hunted in our West, and was asked bythe other what animal this was. He replied withcertainty, A- mountain sheep. It was no busi-. THE WHITE GOAT IS AN AGILE CLIMBER The White Goat 255 ness of mine, and I did not correct him. Buthow inveterate and singular was the confusion !for these two wild animals do not resemble eachother a particle more than do their domesticnamesakes. In the hall of the club that day Idid not know that, ninety years before, the self-same blunder had been made and written downfor the first time, and that we were still inherit-ing its consequences. On September twenty-six, 1805, MeriwetherLewis, quite inconveniently sick, was, with hisequally inconveniently sick comrades, camped forthe purpose of building canoes. They lay at theconfluence of the north fork with the main streamof that river which Idaho now most often calls theClearwater, and which the Indians then calledthe Kooskooskee. They had come overland agreat way — two thousand miles — walking andriding. They had lately been high among thecold snows, and they were now abruptly plungedin the flat cli
Size: 1243px × 2010px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjecthunting, bookyear1904
