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$Unique_ID{QAD00234}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Rocky Mountain Goat (Mountain Goat)}
$Subject{Rocky Mountain Goat (Mountain Goat); Capra; Americana}
$Journal{Quadrupeds of North America: Volume III}
$Volume{Vol. 3:128-133}
$Genus{Capra}
$Species{Americana}
$Common_Name{Rocky Mountain Goat}
$Log{
Plate CXXVIII*00234P1.scf
Genus*00233.txt}
Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992
A U D U B O N ' S M A M M A L S
By John James Audubon, F. R. S., &c. &c.
AND
The Rev. John Bachman, D. D., &c. &c.
-------------------------------------------
VOL. III.
--------------------------------
CAPRA AMERICANA.--BLAINVILLE.
[Oreamnos americanus]
ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT.
[Mountain Goat]
PLATE CXXVIII.--MALE and FEMALE.
C. Magnitudine ovem arietem adaequans, corpore robusto, cornibus parvis
acutis lente recurvis, pilis albis, cornibus ungulisque nigris.
CHARACTERS.
Size of the domestic sheep; form of body, robust; horns, small and pointed,
slightly curved backwards. Colour of hair, totally white.
SYNONYMES.
ANTILOPE AMERICANA ET RUPICAPRA AMERICAN. Blainville, Bulletin Socy.
Phil., Ann. 1816, p. 80.
OVIS MONTANA. Ord, Jour. Acad. N. Sci. Phil., vol. i., part i., p. 8.
Ann. 1817.
MAZAMA SERICEA. Raffinesque Smaltz, Am. Monthly Mag. 1817, p. 44.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP. Jameson, Wernerian Trans., vol. iii. p. 306.
Ann. 1821.
CAPRA MONTANA. Harlan, Fauna Americana, p. 253.
CAPRA MONTANA. Godman, Nat. Hist., vol. ii. p. 326.
ANTELOPE LANIGERA. Smith, Linnaean Trans., vol. xiii. p. 38, t. 4.
CAPRA AMERICANA. Rich., F. B. A., p. 268, plate 22.
DESCRIPTION.
Form of the body and neck, robust, like that of the common Goat; nose,
nearly straight; ears, pointed, lined with long hair; the horns incline slightly
backwards, tapering gradually and not suddenly, uncinated like those of the
chamois, transversely wrinkled with slight rings for nearly half their length
from the base, and sharp pointed; towards the tip they are smooth and polished.
Tail short, and though clothed with long hair, almost concealed by the hairs
which cover the rump; legs, thick and short; secondary hoofs, flat, grooved on
the soles, and resembling those of the common Goat.
The coat is composed of two kinds of hair, the outer and longer
considerably straighter than the wool of the sheep, but softer than that of the
common Goat; this long hair is abundant on the shoulders, back, neck, and
thighs; on the chin there is a thick tuft forming a beard like that of the
latter animal; under the long hairs of the body there is a close coat of fine
white silky wool, quite equal to that of the Cashmere Goat in fineness.
COLOUR.
Horns, and hoofs, black; the whole body, white.
DIMENSIONS.
Feet. Inches.
Length of head and body, . . . . . 3 4
Length of tail, . . . . . . . . 0 1
Length of head, . . . . . . . . 0 11
Length of horns,. . . . . . . . 0 5
Diameter of horns at base, . . . . 0 1
HABITS.
Standing "at gaze," on a table-rock projecting high above the valley
beyond, and with a lofty ridge of stony and precipitous mountains in the
background, we have placed one of our figures of the Rocky Mountain Goat; and
lying down, a little removed from the edge of the cliff, we have represented
another.
In the vast ranges of wild and desolate heights, alternating with deep
valleys and tremendous gorges, well named the Rocky mountains, over and through
which the adventurous trapper makes his way in pursuit of the rich fur of the
beaver or the hide of the bison, there are scenes which the soul must be dull
indeed not to admire. In these majestic solitudes all is on a scale to awaken
the sublimest emotions and fill the heart with a consciousness of the infinite
Being "whose temple is all space, whose altar earth, sea, skies."
Nothing indeed can compare with the sensations induced by a view from some
lofty peak of these great mountains, for there the imagination may wander
unfettered, may go back without a cheek through ages of time to the period when
an Almighty power upheaved the gigantic masses which lie on all sides far
beneath and around the beholder, and find no spot upon which to arrest the eye
as a place where once dwelt man! No--we only know the Indian as a wanderer, and
we cannot say here stood the strong fortress, the busy city, or even the humble
cot. Nature has here been undisturbed and unsubdued, and our eyes may wander
all over the scene to the most distant faint blue line on the horizon which
encircles us, and forget alike the noisy clamour of toiling cities and the sweet
and smiling quiet of the well cultivated fields, where man has made a "home" and
dwelleth in peace. But in these regions we may find the savage grizzly bear,
the huge bison, the elegant and fleet antelope, the large-horned sheep of the
mountains, and the agile fearless climber of the steeps--the Rocky Mountain
Goat.
This snow-white and beautiful animal appears to have been first described,
from skins shown to LEWIS and CLARK, as "the Sheep," in their general
description of the beasts, birds, and plants found by the party in their
expedition. They say, "The Sheep is found in many places, but mostly in the
timbered parts of the Rocky Mountains. They live in greater numbers on the
chain of mountains forming the commencement of the woody country on the coast,
and passing the Columbia between the falls and the rapids. We have only seen
the skins of these animals, which the natives dress with the wool, and the
blankets which they manufacture from the wool. The animal from this evidence
appears to be of the size of our common sheep, of a white colour. The wool is
fine on many parts of the body, but in length not equal to that of our domestic
sheep. On the back, and particularly on the top of the head, this is intermixed
with a considerable portion of long straight hairs. From the Indian account
these animals have erect pointed horns."
The Rocky Mountain Goat wanders over the most precipitous rocks, and
springs with great activity from crag to crag, feeding on the plants, grasses,
and mosses of the mountain sides, and seldom or never descends to the luxuriant
valleys, as the Big-Horn does. This Goat indeed resembles the wild Goat of
Europe, or the chamois, in its habits, and is very difficult to procure. Now
and then the hunter may observe one browsing on the extreme verge of some
perpendicular rock almost directly above him, far beyond gun-shot, and entirely
out of harm's way. At another time, after fatiguing and hazardous efforts, the
hungry marksman may reach a spot from whence his rifle will send a ball into the
unsuspecting Goat; then slowly he rises from his hands and knees, on which he
has been creeping, and the muzzle of his heavy gun is "rested" on a loose stone,
behind which he has kept his movements from being observed, and now he pulls the
fatal trigger with deadly aim. The loud sharp crack of the rifle has hardly
rung back in his ear from the surrounding cliffs when he sees the Goat in its
expiring struggles reach the verge of the dizzy height: a moment of suspense
and it rolls over, and swiftly falls, striking perchance here and there a
projecting point, and with the clatter of thousands of small stones set in
motion by its rapid pass