. Frank Forester's Field sports of the United States, and British provinces, of North America . eep, such is his proper name and is known of his haunts, of his habits, less. No veryaccurate description exists, so far as I can discover, even of itsappearance ; that given by Godman, which I have quoted above,being both bald and contradictory, inasmuch as in one line hestates that the traders do not consider its fleece of muchworth; and ten lines lower, on the same page, asserts that itis said that the fleece of this Goat is as fine as that of the cele-brated Shawl Goat of Cashmere.
. Frank Forester's Field sports of the United States, and British provinces, of North America . eep, such is his proper name and is known of his haunts, of his habits, less. No veryaccurate description exists, so far as I can discover, even of itsappearance ; that given by Godman, which I have quoted above,being both bald and contradictory, inasmuch as in one line hestates that the traders do not consider its fleece of muchworth; and ten lines lower, on the same page, asserts that itis said that the fleece of this Goat is as fine as that of the cele-brated Shawl Goat of Cashmere. Its flesh is said to be musky and unpleasant ; and, althoughso little is known positively concerning the animal, it would notappear that there is much difficulty in its pursuit or capture,beyond the difficulties inherent to its haunts, and unavoidableby visiters to the Ultima Thule of America, the Rocky Moun-tains. This much is certain, that it bears no analogy whatever tothe Chamois of the Alps, or the Ibex of the Pyrennees, bothof which are smooth, sleek-coated animals, nearer akin to the. MOUNTiilN SPORTS. 293 Deer or Antelope, than to the Goat. This creature, on the con-trary, has no relation either to Deer or Antelope, and wouldseem to border closely on the Sheep, and to be a connectinglink between that and the true Goat. To this conclusion I amled by the loose and fleecy nature of its covering, as also by theshortness of its horns. Had it not been for these, I should have fancied that someanalogy might have existed between this Goat and that de-scribed ages ago by Homer, utterly lost sight of during- allintervening time, and lately rediscovered by English travellers,as peculiar to the highlands of the Isle of Crete, or Candia, asit is termed in modern Geography, in the Levantine Sea. If it be true, that this Goat is easily killed by the hunters, itis an anomaly in natural history—for, generally speaking, in allcountries, the Wild Goat of the mountain-tops is, to a prove
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