54- Mr. Moorcboft's Letter on the Purik Sheep of Ladakh, S^c. 



account of the expense ; and those, so named, have been got up of shawl- 

 wool dyed, and mixed with a small portion of the real Tus. I have pro- 

 cured about a maund, which, when picked, will be reduced to less than 

 half that quantity : this I purpose to forward by the first opportunity, to be 

 tried for gloves and stockings. Neither the domesticated shawl-goat, nor 

 the Vigogna (Ovis Peruana Vecunna) furnish a wool so full and rich to the 

 feel ; nor has so fine a material ever yet graced a British loom.* The ani- 

 mal, which yields it, is one of the almost innumerable, varieties of the wild 

 goat which frequent the mountains of this country, but more especially 

 those of Changthang, and Khoten. Its price is very high, as the goat has 

 not yet been tamed ; but, from an experiment made under my view, it is 

 obvious that it is just as domesticable, as that which bears the common 

 shawl-wool ; and as soon as I shall have returned from my journey, ar- 

 rangements, for accomplishing this object, will be put in force. This, as 

 well as the shawl-goat, may, with advantage to tiie peasantry, be trans- 

 ferred to a portion of the Himalaya, now unproductive ; but I much 

 doubt, whether it be worth while, from the scanty yield of wool, on each 

 carcase, to raise the breed on the poorest surface in Britain. I did not 

 think thus, when I first obtained the shawl-goat ; but at that time, the 

 Company possessed not its present extensive territories in the Himalaya, 

 and their attendant facilities. France has, I learn from a correspondent in 

 that country, obtained a flock from some of the steppes near the Caspian, 

 which must be inferior to those of Tibet, as lately A'ghci Aabdi was em- 

 ployed by Russia itself, to procure the breed from the border of Chinese 

 Turkistan. The latter gives wool by no means so fine as that of the pro- 

 vince of Changthang, which touches upon, or rather, is separated from the 

 Honourable Company's Hill Provinces, by a tract of uninhabited border, 

 only four days journey in breadth. Through the interest which I now 

 possess in the Trans-Himalayan countries, I could procure thousands of the 

 best breeds, within a few months. 



In the eastern part of this principality, there is a nondescript wild variety 

 of Horse, which I shall call Equus Kidng, perhaps more nearly allied to the 

 ass than to the horse, in some particulars, but differing from the Gurkhar of 



* A specimen of this fine wool, which is of a brown colour, was transmitted by Mr. Moor- 

 croft to Mr. Fleming, and presented by the latter to the Royal Asiatic Society, in whose 

 Museum it is deposited. Secretary. 



