CAPRE^E. 



CAPREJE. 



770 



as inhabiting the mountains of Persia in troops, and to the Oriental 

 Bezoar as a concretion found in its intestines. Fischer speaks of the 

 jfgagrug as being, without doubt, the parent of our Domestic Goat. 

 Whilst upon this inquiry we must not omit the Jemlah Goat (Capra 

 Jemlaica, of Hamilton Smith), which is said to inhabit the district of 

 Jemlah, between the sources of the Sargew and the Sampoo that is, 



rtweng (Iliraa .Egagrvt, Gray). 



Ibex (Capra Ibcz, Gray). 



ys Colonel Smith, the most elevated range of Central Asia, forming 

 the nucleus between the western and south-eastern branches of the 

 Himalaya Mountains. This animal appears to be the same as the 

 Jharal of the Nepaulege, Capra JMral (Hemitranut Jcmlaictu, Gray,) 

 described by Mr. Hodgson ('Zool. Proc.,' 1834), from a fine male 

 specimen kept in his garden at Nepaul. He states that the Jharal is 

 found wild in the Kachar region, in small flocks, or solitarily, and 

 gives its character as bold, capricious, wanton, eminently scansorial, 

 pugnacious, and easily tamed and acclimatised in foreign parts. He 

 remarks that the JMral has a close affinity, by the character of the 

 horns, to the Alpine jKgagri and still more nearly, in other respects, 

 to Capra Jemlaica. It diners, he observes, from the former by the 

 less volume of the horns, by their smooth anterior edge, and by the 

 absence of the beard ; from the latter, by the horns being much less 

 compressed, not turned inwards at the points, nor nodose. He adds, 

 that the Jharal breeds with the Domestic Goat, and more nearly 

 HAT. HIST. DIV. VOL. I. 



resembles the ordinary types of the tame races than any wild species 

 yet discovered. 



" fro animal," says Pennant, "seems so subject to varieties (the dog 

 excepted) as the Goat ; " nor did its multitudinous transfigurations 

 escape Pliny (lib. viii., c. 53). Cuvier observes that the Domestic Goat, 

 Capra Hircus, varies infinitely in stature, colour, length, and fineness 

 of the hair, and in size and even number of the horns. The goats of 

 Angora, in Cappadoeia, with their soft and silky hair, and those of 

 Tibet, whose delicate wool is manufactured into the shawls (cache- 

 mires) so highly prized by the French beauties, are especially alluded 

 to by him. To enumerate all the varieties would be to exceed our 

 limits. The Angora Goat, which inhabits the tract that surrounds 

 Angora and Beibazar, in Asiatic Turkey, where the goatherds bestow 

 much care on their flocks, frequently combing and washing them, 

 loses, it appears, the delicacy of its hairy covering when exposed to a 

 change of climate and pasture ; and Pennant hints his suspicions that 

 the design of the Baron Alstroemer, a patriotic Swede, who imported 

 some into his own country to propagate the breed for the sake of 

 their hair, turned out fruitless. A spirited attempt to acclimatise 

 the Cashmere Goat was made by an English gentleman, Mr. Towers, 

 some years ago. The Cashmere Goats, which lived some time in the 

 Gardens of the Zoological Society, and at the farm on Kingston-Hill, 

 certainly did not appear to have suffered in the fineness of their coats ; 

 but it is one thing to keep an imported individual by care and 

 attention in the same state, and another to carry on the breed from 

 generation to generation in its pristine beauty, under a different sky 

 and on a strange pasture. We have indeed been informed that the 

 flock of Mr. Towers amounted to about forty, and that the shawls 

 made from the produce of their hides were excellent. One of these 

 shawls was presented to Queen Adelaide. The importance of this 

 manufacture to the people of Cashmere may be estimated from the 

 alleged fact that 1 6,000 looms are there in constant work, each loom 

 giving employment to three men, the annual sale being calculated at 

 30,000 shaws. A preference is given to the wool of Tibet, and 24 

 pounds weight of the best of it is said to sell at Cashmere for 20 

 rupees. The wool is spun by women, and coloured afterwards. It 

 appears also, from a book quoted in the ' Naturalist's Library ' ('Itumi- 

 nantia,' part 2, by Sir William Jardine), that a fine shawl, with a 

 pattern all over it, takes nearly a year in making. The persons 

 employed sit on a bench at the frame ; sometimes four people at each, 

 but if the shawl is a plain one, only two. The borders are marked 

 with wooden needles, there being a separate needle for each colour, and 

 the rough part of the shawl is uppermost while it is in progress of 

 manufacture. A Tartar half breed, having been found to thrive well 

 in a colder climate, has been introduced into France, not without 

 success. The Cashmeres however which are brought from the 

 kingdom of that name are the shawls in high request, and-those who 

 are curious in such articles should remember that there are 

 in India several other goats besides the true Cashmere breed whose 

 wool is employed for the same purpose. 



The Jaal Goat, Capra Jatla (Capra Nvljiana, Gray), is found in the 

 mountains of Abyssinia, Upper Egypt, and Mount Sinai. 



Jaal Goat, or Abyssinian Ibex (Cupra Ifuliana, Gray). 



The Syrian Goat, with its excessively long ears, which is plentifvil 

 in the East, and, according to Pennant, supplies Aleppo with milk, is 

 worthy of especial notice, as well as the Dwarf African, with its 



3 D 



