LIVE STOCK 



Goats 



THE GOATS AND SHEEP 



Ibex. 



Atali Tits. 



Wild Pashm. 



Domestic 

 Goat. 



Hybrids. 



Asiatic Goats of 

 Mixed Origin. 



Hill Goats. 



Shawl-goats. 



This ibex may be said, so far as India is concerned, to extend from the eastern 

 limits of the last-mentioned species east to Nepal. On the north of the Himalaya, 

 however, it is very plentiful and passes considerably to west of its more strictly 

 speaking Indian area, so that in Central Asia it can be spoken of as distributed 

 from the Altai to the Himalaya. It frequents the most precipitous cliffs at 

 elevations close to the limits of perpetual snow. Is able to withstand the 

 extreme cold through its possessing a thick under-fur (pashm or pam). This 

 interesting animal is, in fact, much sought after on account of its under-fur, 

 which in Kashmir is called asali tus. Shawls, stockings and gloves are lined 

 with it and the wool is also woven into the remarkably fine cloth called tusi or 

 into the famous ibex shawls. Cooper speaks of two specially fine qualities of 

 pashm, a white and a grey, both obtained in Tibet from a small species of wild 

 goat called thosh. It is said that no wool is so rich or so soft. The hair or upper- 

 coating, on the other hand, is made into ropes or woven into coarse cloth pattu- 

 and used for coats, tents, etc. In Ladakh large numbers of this goat are annually 

 killed in winter, when forced to descend into the valleys. In consequence a 

 fairly extensive supply of wild pashm is regularly obtainable. No one has, how- 

 ever, recorded the existence of the ibex in domestication, nor of its having been 

 crossed with the tame goats. Still it is sometimes upheld that the pashm- 

 yielding domestic goats of the alpine tracts must have been derived from this 

 or some closely allied extinct species. 



BREEDS OF DOMESTIC GOATS. Very little is known of the 

 origin of the Indian domestic goats. As just stated, C. cegagrus is 

 believed to have given an important strain to a large percentage of the 

 breeds. C. falconeri is viewed as having similarly contributed in build- 

 ing up the peculiarities of some of the breeds with spiral horns. Fossil 

 remains of a closely allied goat have been found in the rocks of the Siwaliks 

 and of possibly another species in Tibet. Crosses between the wild goat 

 of Western Sind and Quetta with the markhor have not only been pro- 

 duced but found naturally and shot by sportsmen. The powers of en- 

 durance possessed by these animals may be inferred from the circumstance 

 that C. cegagrus is found near the sea-level in Sind and Baluchistan 

 and at 13;000 feet in Persia. According to Henderson, C. sibirica bears 

 so strong a resemblance to certain breeds of tame goats, met with on 

 the alpine Himalaya and Tibet, that it may be safely assumed to have 

 given to these their undercoat of pashm. 



Thus, then, the authors whose opinions are of most value admit the 

 possibility of the Asiatic goats having been derived from more than one 

 species, and the advisability of such a conclusion (apart from the diversified 

 form, stature, colour, habits, etc., of the tame races) receives countenance 

 from the admitted existence of fertile hybrids between the wild species 

 themselves, as also between these and the domestic animals. The pro- 

 gression in characteristics from the typical village goat of the plains and 

 the dugu goat of the lower Himalaya to the Alpine pashm-yieldmg animal 

 may, therefore, mark the stages of adaptation and crossing of different 

 species, with the nearer approach in the extremes to the specific types. 

 If there J>e any plausibility in this suggestion, the difficulty which the early 

 writers foresaw in any attempt to breed the true pashm goat on the southern 

 slopes of the Himalaya would at once assume a distinct position. Lawrence 

 (Valley of Kashmir, 364), speaking on this subject, says, " An attempt was 

 made to introduce the shawi-goat into Kashmir, but it failed, as the climate 

 is not sufficiently severe to induce the undergrowth of wool which nature 

 provides in Tarfan for the protection of goats and other animals from the 

 keen winds of that country." It would thus seem certain that the closer 

 the effort at improvement is kept within special areas and with existing 

 stocks the better. To cross the pashm goats with the non-pashm breeds 



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