Mountain Goat
Oreamnos americanus

The mountain goat is not a true goat but belongs to the Rupicaprini or goat antelopes, to which group the chamois, serow, and goral of the Old World belong. His home is on the high, sheer peaks of the mountains, above timber-line.

His outstanding accomplishment is his marvelous ability to climb. In this he even surpasses the mountain sheep. Here he is safe from his natural enemies: wolves, bears, and mountain lions, for he can travel along the precarious cliffs where these animals dare not follow. The eagle may occasionally take a kid but only when it is left unprotected by its mother.

The kids, generally one but sometimes two, are born in April and May. Within a few days after birth they are able to follow their mother.

The mountain goat's food consists of mosses, lichens, bushes and grass. They do not descend into the lower levels in the winter, as do the sheep, but find sheltered spots among the rocks for protection from the worst storms.

The animals and accessories for this group were collected by the Clark-Kissell Alaskan Expedition.

Group Environment
Fords Terror Inlet

The waters of the beautiful fjord known as Endicott Arm wash against the broad foot of the Sawyer Glacier, Alaska, which thousands of years ago carved its channel down the mountain. U-shaped valleys like those shown are characteristic of heavily glaciated mountainous country. The long brown streaks on the ice are masses of rock and earth, known as morraines, caused by the rasping action of the ice against the containing rockwalls. When two such rivers of ice unite, their adjoining lateral morraines unite to form medial morraines.

The lupine Lupinus nootkatensis, common in southern Alaska, has purplish blue flowers tipped with white. Acres of damp meadows may be turned blue by this flower. Cassiope mertensiana slightly resembles an erect club-moss but belongs to the heather family. It has evergreen imbricated leaves and white or pinkish flowers. Its fruit is a dry capsule, not a berry.