552 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



fectly accurate, the great increase to the original 

 price caused by the route talien is undoubted, and 

 a knowledge of this fact stimulated the exertions 

 of those persons who proposed to breed the shawl- 

 goat in Europe. The animal was not qiiiie un- 

 known. In the 'Penny Magazine' fur 1833, an 

 account of one was given Irom a specimen in the 

 Jardin des Plantes at Paris, which was received 

 jrom Calcufia, where it had been bred Irom a cou- 

 ple brought directly Irom Cashmir. But a whole 

 flock was wanted, not a single individual ; and as 

 the attempt to bring any number of these animals 

 by land Irom such an enormous distance as Thibet 

 was deemed impossible, every inquiry was made 

 as to the probability of getting a supply Irom 

 some of the wandering pastoral tribes who in 

 their migrations might occasionally touch on the 

 confines'' of Thibet, and sometimes reach the 

 eteppes of Asiatic Russia. Under the French 

 empire, persons were sent to the fair of Macarief 

 (since removed to Nijnei Novgorod) to make in- 

 quiries of the Asiatic merchants who annually 

 assembled at that great mart, and they learned 

 there that flocks of Thibet goats were numerous 

 in the steppes of Russia. Although circumstances 

 prevented any steps being taken to procure flocks 

 at the time, the information thus obtained proved 

 very serviceable in direciin*^ an expedition vvhich 

 was fitted out several years afterwards lor the 

 purpose of purchasing some. 



The gentleman selected to take charge of the 

 expedition was Motisieur Jauhert, whose know- 

 ledge of the Turkish language and character pe- 

 culFarly fitted him for travelling through countries 

 peopled by Turkish tribes. Monsieur Jaubert 

 left Paris in April, 1818, and pr .ceeded towards 

 Asia, throutih Southern Russia, by Odessa, Ta- 

 ganrog, and Astrakhan. On his way he received 

 much information from merchants of Bukharia 

 and Armenia, and ascertained that a handsome 

 race of gouts with brilliant white fleeces was to be 

 found among the Kirghiz tribes, who wander in 

 the plains partly surrounded by the great bend of 

 the river Ural or Yaik, Vv-hich divides Europe from 

 Asia. Samples of the down from these animals 

 were shown him, and he Ibund locks of it scatter- 

 ed here and there in parts of the steppes between 

 Astrakhan and Orenburg, which convinced him 

 that he was in the track of the genuine shavyl- 

 goat ; this was lijrthcr corroborated by the desig- 

 nation of Tibet, by vvhich name the animal was 

 known to the native tribes. He soon found large 

 flocks of the coals in possession of the Kirghiz, 

 and of them he purchased nearly thirteen hun- 

 dred, with which he prepared to retrace his steps. 

 The home journey across the plains of Russia 

 appears to have been injudiciously timed ; it was 

 begun at the setting in of winter ; the goats cross- 

 edlhe Volga at Tsaritsin, nearly 300 miles above 

 Astrakhan, and proceeded to Taganrog, where it 

 was intended to embark them ; but, as might 

 have been expected, tlie sea was liozen, and it 

 was found necessary to drive them on to Cafla, 

 which they reached on the 24ih of December, 

 nearly 300 of their number having died by the 

 way of cold and liitigue. 



At Cafla the flock v^^as divided into tv/o por- 

 tions; one of these, consisting of 566 goats, was 

 put on board a Russian vessel, which arrived at 

 Marseilles about the middle of April, 1819; iho 

 romuindcr embarked on hoard another vessel with 



Monsieur Jaubert himself, and reached Toulon 

 towards the end of April. No further account 

 has reached us of this latter portion of the flock, 

 but ample details concerning the division which 

 landed at Marseilles has been given by Monsieur 

 Te&sier, vvlio was commissioned to receive tlie 

 animals as soon as they should leave the laza- 

 retto, where they were shut up on landinsr, ac- 

 cording to the quarantine regulations. M. Tessier 

 found the poor creatures in a wretched slate; they 

 had been packed together in the hold of the ves- 

 sel, where no fresh air ever reached them ; and 

 the space they had to move in was less than the 

 length of their bodies. This treatn)ent had pro- 

 duced disease in almost all the flock; the hair 

 was dropping from them, and it was Ibund neces- 

 sary to shear ofl' what remained. They also suf- 

 fered Irom convulsions ; but the most fatal malady 

 with which they were attacked was a tubercular 

 consumption, li-om which great numbers perished. 

 A close lazaretto was not calculated to remove 

 the complaint, and many deaths took place daily 

 during the thirty days they were confined. " We 

 have saved but very iew.'''' says M. 'J'essier, "and 

 only such as had slight attacks ; the remedy em- 

 ployed was flour of brimstone mixed with their 

 food." 



The animals that escaped these multiplied illg 

 were soon removed to more congenial situations; 

 some were placed in the royal bergerie near Per- 

 piyucin, at, the foot of the Pyrenees, some in the 

 hilly country about Toulon, and others farther to 

 the west in the departments near the Rhone. 

 The whole number surviving of both flocks when 

 MonsiciirTessier wrote his account (August) was 

 about 400; they were then generally in good 

 health, their hair had grown to a considerable 

 length, and the valuablfc down had begun to show 

 itself 



The shawl-goat was thus naturalized, and sub- 

 sequent experience has shown that the down pro- 

 duced in Europe is not inft;rior to that of the 

 original Thibet stock. Fears were at first enter- 

 tained that this could not be the case : it was said 

 that the breed obtained was not pure, that it had 

 degenerated ; and a let^ter from Moorcroft, written 

 in the beginning of 1^22, at Ladakh in Thibet, 

 seemed to confirm the suspicion. He says, 

 "France has, I learn, procured a flock from some 

 of the steppes near the Caspian, which must be 

 initjrior to those of Thibet, as lately Aga Aabdi 

 was em|)loyed by Russia itself to procure the 

 breed from the borders of Chinese Turkestan." 

 But these fears u'ere unfounded. A more serious 

 evil was the small quantity of wool produced by 

 each goat, which on an average amounted to less 

 than three ounces; and the high price paid in 

 Thibet for the raw material proves that the delt-ct 

 is in the original species. Sach a small produce 

 precluded ail hofje of making a profit by rearing 

 the animal, and the scheme would have tliiiled 

 had not the inlelliirence of an enlightened French- 

 man overcome the difficulty. Shortly after the 

 arrival of the Thibet goats in France, several spe- 

 cimens of the Angora goat were brouglit into that 

 comitry fVom Pei-sia ; one of these animals, bo- 

 lori'.'ing to the Duchess of Berri, was seen in 

 1S22 In' Tvlonsieur Polonceau, proprietor of seve- 

 ral of the Thibet goats. The length and silki- 

 ness of the hair of this goat were extraordinary, 

 and Moiiiieur Poionceau judged that a cross be- 



