THE ANGORA GOAT. 15 



Davis. The first is a buck, weighing 155 pounds and caiTving- a fleece 

 of T pounds; the second is a doe, weighing- 102 pounds, cariying a 

 fleece of 1^ pounds. These pictures appeared in the Country Gentle- 

 man in 1856 and were furnished that paper by Col. Richard Peters, 

 who was at that time the owner of the goats. Dr. Davis, not being 

 familiar with goats, thought these were the famous Cashmere goats 

 which furnished the fiber for the costly Cashmere shawl, and they 

 were called Cashmere goats for many ^^ears after their introduction 

 into the United States. The records show that as late as 1861 Mr. 

 William M. Landrum, the veteran breeder of Angoras, was awarded a 

 silver goblet and $25 in cash for the introduction of the first Cash- 

 meres [Angoras] into California. Hon. Israel S. Diehl, writing on 

 "The Goat" in the Annual Report of this Department for 1863, gives 

 descriptions of dift'erent varieties of Angoras in Asia Minor, among 

 which was one variety which might very easily be mistaken for the 

 Cashmere. He says: 



There is also a second or other variety of Angora, or shawl, goat besides those gen- 

 erally described. This goat has an unchanging outer cover of long, coarse hair, 

 between the roots of which comes in winter an undercoat of downy wool that is 

 naturally thrown off in spring or is carefully combed out for use. A remarkably fine 

 si)ecies of this breed exists thi-oughout the area to which the white-haired goat is 

 limited, and similar breeds prevail all over the highlands of Turkish and Persian 

 Armenia, Koordistan, and at Kirman; and, although some flocks yield finer fleeces 

 than others, it is called the same wool or under down as the wool of Cashmere and 

 Tibet, and samples of the wool of the Tibetan and the double-wooled goat of the 

 banks of the Euxine show them to be but varieties of the same species. 



This goat is of a larger size than those of the more southern Turkish provinces and 

 its wool finer, and is the variety probably introduced by Dr. Davis from Asia Minor 

 as the Cashmere, and now erroneously so called throughout the country, as all the 

 importations of this country, as far as we can learn, were shipped from ports on the 

 Mediterranean or Constantinople, several thousand miles from Cashmere or Tiliet, 

 through inhospitable and almost untraveled countries for Europeans, which goes far 

 to prove the so-called "Cashmere goat" to be the Angora. 



Mr. Diehl, in the same article mentioned above, describes the Cash- 

 mere goat. The difference between it and the Angora of our country 

 will be seen to be distinct. The similarity of the variety of Angora 

 described above and the Cashmere is marked, especially in respect of 

 the downy undercoat. His description of the Cashmere is as follows: 



This variety of the wool-bearing or shawl goat, as it is often called, is spread over 

 Tibet, Northern India, and the regions to the east of the Caspian Sea. It is some- 

 what smaller than the common and Angora goat. It has straight, round, pointed 

 horns, pendent ears; is covered with straight and falling long, fine, flat, silky hair, 

 with an undercoat in winter of a delicate greenish wool, of but 2 to 3 ounces 

 each, which latter alone constitutes the fabric from which the celebrated shawls are 

 made. Ten goats furnish only enough for a shawl Ij yards square; but this is often 

 found differing both in color and the quality of the wool, or rather the fine hair, of 

 which the fleece is composed. The principal points in the most approved breeds are 

 large ears, the limbs slender and cleanly formed, the horns not spirally twisted, antl, 

 above all, the fleece being long, straight, fleecy, and white. 



