BASED ON MATERIAL DRAWN FROM “THE AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY,” COPYRIGHT 1904, BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 4. No. 13. SERIAL No. 113
ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT
Game Animals of America
ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT
Monograph Number Two in The Mentor Reading Course
The Rocky Mountain goat, or the white goat (Oreamnos montanus), is the only American representation of the many species of wild goat-like animals so numerous throughout the Old World. Its habitat extends from northwestern Montana to the head of Cook Inlet, but it is not found in the interior nor in the Yukon Valley. It is one of the most picturesque and interesting wild animals on the continent of North America. It ranges on the grassy belt of the high mountains just above the timber-line. It seems to like particularly the dangerous ice-covered slopes over which only the boldest hunters dare to follow it. On the coast of British Columbia, however, the white goat sometimes descends very near to tide water.
The white goat is odd in appearance. At first glance it seems to be a slow, clumsy creature; in fact, it is the most expert and daring rock climber of all American hoofed animals. The hoofs are small, angular and very compact and consist of a combination of rubber-pad inside and knife-edge outside to hold the goat equally well on snow, ice or bare rock. It is said that goats will cross walls of rock which neither man, dog nor mountain sheep would dare attempt to pass. Sometimes they walk along the face of a precipice of apparently smooth rock; yet in doing so they frequently look back and turn around whenever they feel so inclined. The white goat is built something on the order of a small American bison. Its head is carried low and the horns are small and short. Its hair is yellowish-white. Next to the skin is a thick coat of fine wool through which grows a long outside thatch of coarse hair.