Fortunately, however, the successful hunting of the goat is not always thus perilous, for though he habitually selects for his home the roughest and most inaccessible peaks to be found in the mountains, yet he sometimes ranges on more favorable ground, and if the sportsman be so fortunate as to find him there he may be killed and saved. They range somewhat lower in winter than in summer, but never even then venture down into the cañons or valleys, as do all the other large mountain animals. They only come down upon the lower peaks and ridges, and remain about the rocky walls, which are so precipitous that the snow can not lie on them to any considerable depth. Their power of climbing over and walking on these almost perpendicular rock walls is utterly astounding. They will walk along the side of an upright projecting ledge that towers hundreds of feet above and below them where a shelf projects not more than four or five inches wide. They will climb straight up an almost perpendicular wall, if only slightly rough and irregular, so that they can get a chance to hold on with their spongy hoofs here and there. And they seem to select these difficult passes in many instances when a good, easy passage could be had to the place to which they are bound by going a little further around. They seem to delight in scaling a dangerous cliff as a courageous boy does in climbing the tallest tree. I once saw where a goat had walked straight up over a smooth flat slab of granite ten feet wide, that laid at an angle of about fifty degrees, and that was covered with about two inches of wet snow and slush. I could not climb up it with moccasins on my feet, and no dog could have followed him there. This faculty is accounted for by the peculiar shape and quality of their hoofs before described.
The skin of the Rocky Mountain goat has never had any regular commercial value. The stiff, coarse, brittle hair that is mixed with the wool renders them unsuitable for robes or rugs, and this hair can not readily be plucked out. The only demand for them is for mounting. Very few white hunters and none of the Indians understand how to skin and preserve them properly for this purpose, and this fact, taken in connection with that of the rough and dangerous nature of the ground they inhabit, makes it difficult to secure good skins, or even heads for mounting.