Hayes.] 420 [March 18, 



purposes to be hereafter referred to. Lots of so-called Angora wool, 

 doubtless the pi'oducts of recent crosses, offered In the market the pres- 

 ent season, could be used only for carpet filling, the lowest use of woolly 

 fibre. 



Although the facts and reasoning given above leave no doubt upon 

 my own mind that the breeding from crossings of the common goat of 

 this country should be abandoned, it is proper that I should state that 

 hopes ai'e still entertained in France of good results from breeding 

 witii the domestic goats of that country. M. Richard, of Cantal, 

 in a report made in 1862 upon the animals deposited by the Society 

 of Acclimatation at the farm of the Souliard in the Cantal, says: 

 "Crosses produced from the Angora and the ordinary goats of Au- 

 vergne have given products, which at the second generation much re- 

 semble those of pure blood; and if the Society should continue its 

 experiments upon this subject, I think it will obtain some happy 

 results. Nevertheless, to settle the opinion upon this point, it would 

 be useful to study this practical question wherever the Angora goats 

 have been deposited."* The most that can be made of the opinion so 

 cautiously expressed is that the system of crossing is still regarded in 

 France as a proper subject of experiment. 



CULTURE IN THE REGION OF ANGORA. 



The culture of this species in the country of its greatest develop- 

 ment next demands attention. Ample information upon this point 

 is furnished by scientific travellers. The celebrated academician 

 Tournefort, the master in botany of the illustrious LInna3us, was the 

 first to shed full light upon the ancient magnificence of Ancyra, the 

 site of the present Angora, mentioned by Livy among the illustrious 

 cities of the East. He refers to its most ancient people as having 

 made even the Kings of Syria their tributaries, Avhile its later inhab- 

 itants were the principal Galatians, whom the Apostle Paul honored 

 with an epistle. He describes its monument to Augustus, the most 

 splendid in all Asia, upon which was inscribed in pure Latin the life 

 of the Emperor, its streets abounding with pillars and old marbles 

 mingled with porphyries and jaspers. Its walls built up of ruins of 

 architraves, bases and capitals, and its tombs covered with Greek and 

 Latin inscriptions, all attesting that this was one of the centres of the 

 Roman civilization, and making more significant the silence of con- 

 temporary authoi-s before alluded to. But more Interesting than the 

 monuments of jjast splendors, is the mention first given with any de- 

 tail by this traveller, of the conti-Ibution to modern civiHzatlon made 

 by the barbarians from Central Asia. I transcribe his language : 



* Bulletin supr. cit., T. ix., p. 8. 



