THE CASHMIR GOAT. 671 
The Goat is, like several other domesticated animals, able to foretell stormy weather, 
and always contrives to place itself under shelter before the advent of a storm. The 
flesh of the Goat is not held in great estimation, and even that of the kid, which is 
comparatively tender and well-flavoured, has fallen into disrepute. The milk is, 
however, in some demand, being of a rather peculiar flavour, which is grateful to certain 
palates. 
In its wild state, the Goat is a fleet and agile animal, delighting in rocks and precipitous 
localities, and treading their giddy heights. with a foot as sure and an eye as steady as 
that of the chamois or ibex. Even in domesticated life, this love of clambering is never 
eradicated, and wherever may be an accessible roof, or rock, or even a hill, there the Goat 
may be generally found. 
CASHMIR GOAT. 
THE varieties of the Goat ave almost numberless, and it will be impossible to engrave, 
or even to notice, more than one or two of the most prominent examples. One of the 
most valuable of these varieties 1s the celebrated Cashmir Goat, whose soft silky 
hair furnishes material for the soft and costly fabrics which are so highly valued in all 
civilized lands. 
This animal is a native of Thibet and the neighbouring locality, but the Cashmir 
shawls are not manufactured in the same land which supplies the material. The fur of 
the Cashmir Goat is of two sorts; a soft, woolly under coat of greyish hair, and a 
covering of long silken hairs that seem to defend the interior coat from the effects of 
winter. The woolly under coat is the substance from which the Cashmir shawls are 
woven, and in order to make a single shawl, a yard-and-a-half square, at least ten Goats 
are robbed of their natural covering. Beautiful as are these fabrics, they would be sold 
at a very much lower price but for the heavy and numerous taxes w hich are laid upon 
the material in all the stages of its manufacture, and after its completion upon the finished 
article. Indeed, the English buyer of a Cashmir shawl is forced to pay at least a 
thousand per cent. on his ‘purchase. 
