From the American Heritage History of Flight, page 283 or so: Another Alaskan pioneer flier, Merle K. Smith, who later became president of Cordova Airlines, re

From the American Heritage History of Flight, page 283 or so: Another Alaskan pioneer flier, Merle K. Smith, who later became president of Cordova Airlines, recalls on of his own experiences as a bush pilot. In the old days we used to have what is now called unusual cargo. We called it good paying freight then. There was a homesteader who decided that he needed fresh milk. So he sent to Seattle and ordered some goats. I loaded these goats into one of the old planes and started up there. Well, I had forgotten that goats like rope, and I had tied these goats to various places in the airplane with ropes so that they wouldn't get loose and annoy me or endanger the flight. In about twenty minutes they had all the ropes chewed through. So then I had all these goats. They'd all frolic together. There must have been eight hundred pounds of goats; and they'd all get in the back of the airplane and I couldn't hold the nose down. They would all come up and chew on me a little bit, and chew my shirt, and I'd slap them away. But I decided not to do that any more, because the first time I did that, they all went to the back of the airplane. It got to be kind of a serious situation. By the time we got to where I could land these goats they had most of the fabric eaten off the inside of the airplane, and my shirt; and the seat that I was sitting on was pretty well stripped of upholstery. But these little things happened. If you came out all right, as in this instance — well, it was funny.