48 The 'Book of the Goat. 



When Mr. Bryan Hook visited Switzerland in 1893 

 for the purpose of bringing home some Toggenburg goats, 

 he was tempted to add to that importation some female 

 Appenzells, which he purchased in various villages, viz., 

 Wildhaus, Unterwasser, and Neslau, to secure different 

 strains. He says in his book on " Milch Goats 

 and their Management," after referring to the Tog- 

 genburg : _" Side by side with this breed and occupying 

 the same district I found another, differing only in colour, 

 and known as the Appenzeller. It is pure white and in- 

 variably hornless, and I was informed that large herds are 

 pastured on the snowy slopes of the Santis mountain, 

 whence the milk is carried on the herdsmen's backs to the 

 town and neighbourhood of Appenzell to supply the goat- 

 milk-cure establishments, which are a feature of the little 

 canton to which the town gives its name." The same 

 writer tells us that " as a rule the peasants are very careful 

 to keep the Appenzell and Toggenburg (known locally as 

 the ' white ' and the ' red ') breeds perfectly distinct, but 

 now and then one sees animals which by their colouring 

 show a cross of the two breeds. All such animals, how- 

 ever, are rigidly excluded from the Government subsidy." 



THE SAANEN, OR GESSENAY. This is considerably 

 larger and coarser than the native breed of the Toggen- 

 burg, and, with perhaps the exception of the Schwarzhals, 

 than all Swiss breeds. It takes its name from the Saanen 

 Valley, in the south of the Canton Berne, but is also met 

 with in considerable numbers further north in the upper 

 Simmenthal Valley, where it is known as the Gessenay goat. 

 The Saanen is always white, or at most cream-coloured, 

 and is, like the Toggenburg, supposed to be hornless, 

 as, indeed, most of them are; but since horns show them- 

 selves very frequently even in the progeny of polled parents 

 this cannot be said to be an absolutely hornless breed any- 

 more than the one last mentioned. The hair is short, or 



