Getting our goat

Filmed during the Finley-Church Expedition to the Northland, 1926. This film was taken in the mountains of British Columbia, and concentrates on the arduous task of filming the North American mountain goat. The film opens with footage of various small animals: chipmunks, ground squirrels, coneys, and Franklin's grouse (fool-hens). In the next sequence, attempts are made by the filmmakers to capture the mountain goat on film. Determined to succeed, the expedition moves higher up and deeper into the mountains on horseback. Goats are filmed off in the distance, but attempts to get close-up shots of the evasive goats are futile. William L. Finley's solution to this problem is a disguise: dressed in a goat skin, Finley is not a threatening sight to the mountain goats; he manages to approach the goats and film them at close range.