10i2 On the Cachemire Goat of hidi<j. 



those animals minutely. The word goat, which the English, 

 who are best acquainted with those countries, have given, 

 the animal, is a strong indication that it is not a sheep, 

 since they would have called them shawl sheep if it had 

 shown the characters belonains; to that race. 



The important point, however, is not its being a goat or 

 a sheep, but whether it can be transported and naturalized 

 to the climate of Europe. When we gave our correspondent, 

 half in joke, half in earnest, the problem to. solve, whether 

 a pair of those goats could be brought to Constantinople, we 

 thought of the possibility of bringing them from the moun- 

 tains of Lesser Thibet, near the country of Cachemire, and 

 v/herc the ana]oo;y of climate seems to indicate that they 

 could live equally well. From the mountains of Lesser 

 Thibet the river Giluma runs into the Caspian sea. The 

 navigation of this river from Badacian to Sellizure is 400 

 leagues ; and the navigation of the Caspian, from Sellizure 

 to Feorabath or to Terki, is about 200 leagues. From thence 

 would remain the passage by land to Trcbisond on the Black 

 sea, or by the route to the mouth of this river, which, as is 

 well known, formerly served for transporting merchandize 

 from India. 



The letter of our friend's correspondent gives, perhaps, an 

 exaggerated idea of the real difficulties of transporting this 

 animal : but the greatest difficulties nii!?;ht still occur in the 

 proper regimen for their preservation in Europe. Thibet is 

 the highest country of the old continent, and the air is uncom- 

 monlv dry during the season which is not properly the rainy 

 scas(m, I. e. from October to Juiie or .July. The herbage 

 of the pastures grows brown and dry, so as almost to crum- 

 ble to powder when touched. It is this dried grass, very 

 scanty in quantity, but apparently containing much esculent 

 substance in small volume, which is the sole nourishment 

 of the shawl goats. Could the animal subsist without a si- 

 milar nourishment ? Would it be possible to procure the 

 same grass in some pv.rts of the Pvrennees, or the Alps \ Is 

 it not necessary for the animal to have a far southern cli- 

 mate, and a ^oil extremely dry ? If it could live in another 

 climate, would it retain the down which preserves it from 



the 



