The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-07-08
NEW HAVEN SOCIETY LADY
HER ADVENTURE IN THE ROCKY
MOUNTAINS.

"A nightly interesting contribution In
the July Outing entitled "A Night With
the White Goats" is from the pen of
one Of New Havens leading society
ladies, Mrs. Mary Trowbridge Town
send, wife of United States Judge w.
K. Townsend. 1t has attracted much
attention and besides the thousands of
readers of Outing who have read 1t
selections from it are appearing in
many of the foremost journals of the
country. The article is devoid Of any
attempt at pretentious writing, but is
nevertheless a concise and graphic de-
sciptive narrative, which tells of an
adventure in the Rockies in a way to
bring the scene strongly before the
reader.
Says the New York Sun, first quoting
from the article: "He scorns the pro-
lection of a coat which changes color
with the autumn leaves, and proudly
fiaunts at all seasons the white of the
everlasting mountain snow. He has
neither the fatal inouisitiveness of the
plains antelope, the timidity of the
deer, nor the cunning of the sheep.
He is as deliberate as a bear, and, If
approached from above, as reckless as
a caribou. The Rocky Mountain goat
is not true goat, but an antelope that
masquerades in goats clothing. He is
unique in living where other game
would die, and dying where other game
would live. He is not found in men
ageries nor in circus tents. Only his
mounted skin is found in such places.
Mary Trowbridge Townsend writes
thus of animals which she sought and
killed near Lake Gillian in the state
of Washington, having hunted elk,
sheep, and other big game so much that
some new sport was wanted. She saw
her first goat from the little steamer on
her way to the lake, much the same
as the tenderfoot visitor to the Adiron-
dacks occasionally sees a deer from
the stage, but it was not until she and
her companion started next day with
a guide that she learned some peculi-
arities that makes goat hunting differ
ent from most other kinds of hunting.
For instance there was no special
place for hunting. The goats We're
among the mountains high up, but in
no particular place. and they had to
be hunted in the hit-or- miss fashion of
a tarpon fisherman. They travelled for
hours over slippery pine carpets, over
sharp loose shale, over hot, ragged
rocks zigzagging along and taking to
a goat trail eagerly since there the
walking was better. At night they
camped without having seen a goat.
Mrs. Townsend's Outing article pro-
ceeds as follows: At evening we scrap
ed out narrow graye-like bed on the
edge of an overhanging cliff. There
We're possible dangers from rock-slides
above us, and sudden roll or incau
tious movement in our sleep might have
landed us in eternity. 1t was Won
derful night--a new bright moon which
sailed away, leaving only the glorious
stars, crossed and recrossed by num-
berless meteors.
Our fire had been carelessly lighted
near some fallen timber. which soon be-
came broad sea of flame. Suddenly,
with a mighty crash, the great logs
slipped over the percipiee, falling
thousand feet below, and carrying in
their triumphal course other trees,
powders and earth, lighting up the
midnight with a shower of eddying fire,
leaving only darkness and cold behind.
BY daylight next morning we ate our
bread and drank our cafe noir, made
with water worth it's weight in gold,
for indeed it was as hard to find as
goats.
Tantalus could hardly have suffered
70. than yxra did DURING
those hours of scorching sunshine,
when, parched with thirst, dripping
with perspiration and our lungs filled
with dust, we looked down at the foot
of the mountain, saw the beautiful,
cold, blue lake, and realized how i'm
possible it was to reach 1t.
The only signs of life we saw on
those mountain tops were goats, rattle
snakes, a small screech-owl which had
made it's nest on a barren rock, and a
bear which we routed from his bed as
we struggled to find one for ourselves.
Fortunately for him, his pelt was not
worth securing, and the echoes of rifle
shots must not be recklessly sounded
| in a goat country.
| At last we gained snow-line, and a.
white goat was seen ION a distant spur,
| boldly outlined against the sky" HIS
black horns glistened in the sunlight,
! and his white name stood erect as he
gazed in solemn meditation upon the
scene below. And indeed it was a
\ grand picture. One vast sea of snow
| capped peaks filled the entire horizon;
in the distance great glaciers scanned
with gray-blue crevasses, and, nine
thousand feet below us, the lake, rival
! ing in blueness even the famed color of
the Bahaman waters, a narrow ribbon
4 dividing the steep green cliffs on either
side.
The noise of rolling stones startled
Billy. He Weakened from his lethargy,
listened, climbed with slow, rolling
gait to a still higher bench, and waited,
but not for us; he was too far and we
too feeble to follow his wanderings.
| Again through the glass we saw, a
quarter of a mile directly below us,
what under the shadow of some pines
| looked like deer, but proved to be a
small bunch of goats. So we deter
mined to try the descent. Going down
was even worse than climbing up.
Every step was followed by an ava
lanche of loose slide rock, but we had
| seen the quarry and must reach it.
We silently stole behind sharp spur
of rock, fearing, from a slight dust we
saw arise, that our game had taken
to find the goats within easy range.