A BET OF BOUNCE.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 59, 26 August 1875, Page 7

A BET OF BOUNCE.

The natives who live near the indiarubber forests in ' South America are the most agile people in the world. They live on the milk that is found in the young trees, but they drink it fresh each day, for it hardens into gum when exposed to the air for a few hours. Mas Clark, who owns a goat ranche, near the foot of the hills ofthe Rocky Mountains, in Colorado, seeing these facts in a scientific journal, discovered a process of reducing all kinds of ordinary rubber to its original liquid . state. When he had prepared seven or eight, gallons, he offered it to the goats, but they would not touch it. Disgusted, he put it in the springhouse, with his milk. That night the goats broke through the carrol, smashed in the door-, and drank all the milk, including' the indiarnbber. In a few days tbey rushed into the canyons, and amused themselves by jumping from precipices head first. Ono Sunday afternoon, Mr Clark found. about twenty of the older ones standing at the foot of a cliff, watching the kids leap off. The distance, was fully 90 feet, and when they struck, the granite below they bounded 50 yards into the air, but the indiarubber had made their bones so elastic, and their flesh so tough, that they suffered, no injury ; and they fell in all positions — on their feet, sides, heads, and backs/ When they became tired, the old ones . took their places. Then the kids gave way to the most extravagant antics. When the old bucks began to bounce on the rocks, i ihey lay on their backs and beat the ! air with their hoofs, while the baby ! goats stood on their hind legs, and i walked round like monkeys in a pantomime. Having once tasted the rubbermilk they grew fond of it, and every night they returned to the ranche for their evening* alldwance. Their favorite amusement is to climb to the top of James' Peak, back of Carribou, and roll down ;he side. The distance is about two and three=-quarter miles. Sometimes tlie whole flock (fifteen hundred) start, in line, and each goat tries to reach the bottom first. The Speed is so great that they bounce over formidable obstructions.' Seven old bucks struck a large rock, called the Camel's Mump. It is forty feet high and twenty feet in diameter, but the entire seven goats shot clear over it and reached the bottom half a minute ahead of the kids. — American paper.