COAT, 



d'f the Creator, in so perfectly adapting its organiza- 

 tion to its instincts. 



The goat delights in the uncultivated hea$, or 

 'the shrubby rock, rather than in the fields cultivated 

 by human industry. It bears well either a hot or a 

 cold climate. Its milk is of an agreeable taste, highly 

 nutritive, and medicinal, especially in consumptive 

 cases. Several places, in the mountainous parts of 

 Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, are much resorted to by 

 valetudinarians, lor the purpose of drinking the milk 

 of the goat, and its effects are often found salutary in 

 -vitiated and debilitated habits. 



Sonnini, in his edition of Button's Natural History, 

 gives a curious instance of the readiness with which 

 the goat will permit itself to be sucked by animals of 

 a different kind, and even of a much larger size than 

 itself. He tells us, that he saw in the year 1780, a 

 foal that had lost its mother, thus nourished by a goat, 

 which was placed on a barrel, in order that the foal 

 might" suck with more convenience. The foal fol- 

 lowed its nurse to pasture, as if she had been its mo- 

 ther, and was attended with the greatest care by the 

 goat, which always called it back by her bleatings, 

 when it wandered to any distance from her. 



These animals, from extreme familiarity, will some- 

 times become troublesome. Button relates, that in 

 .1698, an English ship, having gone into an harbour 

 in the island of -Bonavista, two negroes went on board, 

 and ottered the captain as many goats as he chose 

 to carry away. He expressed his surprise a\ this of- 

 fer, when the negroes informed him that there were 

 only twelve persons on the island, and that the goats 

 had become so numerous, as to be extremely trouble- 

 some ; for, instead of being difficult to catch, they 

 followed them about with an unpleasant degree uf ob- 

 stinacy, like other domestic animals. 



In many of the mountainous parts of Europe, goats 

 constitute the principal wealth of the inhabitants, 

 and supply them with many of the necessaries and 

 conveniences of life. They lie upon beds made of 

 their skins : they live upon their milk without bread/ 



