Don't stop me if you've heard this before

Two Texans are out hunting, and as they are walking along they come upon a huge hole in the ground. They approach it and are amazed by the size of it.

The first hunter says "Wow, that's some hole; I can't even see the bottom. I wonder how deep it is."

The second hunter says" I don't know, let's throw something down and listen and see how long it takes to hit bottom."

The first hunter says "There's this old automobile transmission here, give me a hand and we'll throw it in and see".

So, they pick it up and carry it over, and count "one, and two and three" and throw it in the hole. They are standing there listening and looking over the edge when they hear a rustling in the brush behind them. As they turn around, they see a goat come crashing through the brush, run up to the hole and, with no hesitation, it plunged in head first.

While they are standing there looking at each other, looking in the hole and trying to figure out what that was all about, an old farmer walks up.

"Say there",says the farmer, "you fellers didn't happen to see my goat around here anywhere, did you?"

The first hunter says " Funny you should ask, but we were just standing here a minute ago and a goat came out of the bushes doin' about a hunert miles an hour and jumped head first into this hole here!"

The old farmer, confused, says "why that's impossible, I had him chained to an old transmission!"

Next. . .

Just for that I almost "quoted" you in full.

OK so how deep did the hole turn out to be? Surely the farmer must have had some knowledge of it. ? ? ?

Congratulations, PB. First time I have seen you enter a Joke in this Forum. Perhaps you could borrow Atum Angel's Joke Book ... he he he

Thanks, but I stole it from my Texas buddy who started collecting jokes after his third master's degree.