98 On the Cachcmire Gout of India. 



but died almost immediately on its arrival. The attempt^ 

 however, may have been made without suitable care. 

 My experience in sheep makes me unwilling to believe 

 in the impossibility of naturalizing a breed to any cli- 

 mate. But it is an enterprise for a prince ; for the shawl 

 goat must be brought from the momitains of Thibet, and 

 there would be many difficulties to surmount in obtaining a 

 specimen. It is a problem which I sHibmit to you for solu- 

 tion." Judging, as you do, that the difficulty of bringing 

 goats from Thibet would be in fact insurmountable, I set 

 about obtaining information if there was no climate nearer 

 Constantinople to which this animal was naturalized. This 

 was my object in a note which I stnt on the 4th of April last 

 to Mr. VVallenbourgh, who passed many years at Constanti- 

 nople when employed in the Imperial legation, but now in 

 the state chancery at Vienna, and who is well skilled in the 

 languages and commercial aflairs of the East. He had the 

 goodness to communicate to mc the answer which he re- 

 ceived, and to allow me to make what use I might please 

 of it. 



" Mr. Coglasar de Sophlalij to Mr. fVaUenlourgh. 



*' Although during my stay of some years at Bagdad I 

 busied myself in collecting all possible information concern- 

 ing the manufacture of Cacheraire sliawls, yet I was desirous, 

 if possible, to obtain some further irhformation from a Persian 

 merchant lately arrived here, that I might answer the note I 

 received from you. The animals whose tlcece affords the 

 Cachemire shawls are not goats, but sheep. There i* a di- 

 stance of 303 conaks (days' journeys) between the moun- 

 tains where they are found, and Bagdad. To be sure of pre- 

 serving a couple of pairs of those sheep, it would be neces- 

 sary to make a purchase of twenty pairs for the journey, as- 

 the change of climate, and the length of the way, would be 

 very dangerous to them. It would be necessary to send to 

 a confidential person to make this purchase, and to conduct 

 the animals hither; and he could scarcely return in less than 

 five years, owing to the mode of travelling. It is well 

 known that these journeys arc made with caravans of ca- 

 mels •. 



