On the Cachemire Goat of India. 101 



thority of a passage taken from Turner's Relation of an 

 Embassy to Thibet, published in 1800. The English 

 ambassador had passed the Bootan and approached Teshoo 

 Lamboo, the residence of the iania, in the 28th degree of 

 north latitude, before he saw any herds of those precious 

 animals. 



" The shawl goats feed in numerous herds on the short 

 and scanty herbage which scarcely covers those elevated 

 places. This animal is, perhaps, the most beautiful of all 

 those that compose the numerous family of the goal kind. 

 Their colour varies much. Some are black, some white, 

 some blueisli,and others of a tint a little lighter than that of 

 a young fawn. This goat has straight horns, and is shorter 

 in height than the smallest P^ngiish sheep. The matter em- 

 ployed for the fabrication of shawls is a fine down which lies 

 close to the skin. A long coarse hair covers this down, and 

 serves to preserve its softness." 



Forster, who carcfullv examined the valley of Cachemire, 

 calls the matter of which these shawls are made wool. But 

 he never saw the animal; and this expression no more proves 

 its being the production of a sheep, than the term v'lgonia 

 wool proves that the vigon is not of the goat kind. We 

 know that the camel, the paca, the glama, the vigon, the. 

 goat of Tauris, and one of the varieties of the goats of Sy- 

 ria, yield, under the long and coarse hair, a down more or less 

 fine. It is true that there are races of sheep, such as those 

 of Shetland, those of Iceland, and some parts of Siberia and 

 Tartarv, which have in like manner a fine and soft down 

 under their rough wool. Thus, the animal of Thibet which 

 produces the precious matter of the shawls may, perhaps, be 

 a sheep. By its dimensions it should belong rather to the 

 sheep than the goat race, and it would not be astonishing 

 tliat travellers should have made some mistake. Samuel 

 Turner inspires confidence in his observations respecting 

 natural history, lie appears accurate in all the details re- 

 lating to his mission. lie describes distinctly all the ani- 

 njals of those high regions, and, in particular, the sheep of 

 the country. The manner in which he speaks of the ilocks 

 ':'f ;?hawl gnats leaves no room to doubt that he has examined 

 (} 3 those 



