Shawl Goat into Britain. 339 



fndift, and the knowledge of it will afford a useful hint to those 

 who may undertake to prosecute the same experiment. 



It is also important to remark, for the benefit of future 

 cultivators of this goat, that they were partial to clean pasture, 

 and were very unwilling to feed where the sheep had been. 

 Hence the necessity of keeping them, as much as possible, 

 separate, or of putting them on pastures so extensive as to 

 diminish this inconvenience. It was also remarked, that they 

 fed greedily on docks, and, as might be expected, were very 

 destructive to the plantations, whenever they could get access 

 to them. 



Such are the results of the attempts hitherto made in Scot- 

 land towards the accomplishment of this object; and, at 

 present, there appears no immediate prospect of renewing- 

 them. In England, nothing has yet been done on this subject, 

 although I am informed at the India-house, that a male and 

 female, sent to Lord Ranelagh at Fulham, are still alire 

 there. The last arrival in this country was that of a male arid 

 female in March last, (1820,) but they both died shortly after 

 landing. 



P. S. I shall conclude this letter with an account of those 

 circumstances respecting their habits and treatment, and their 

 produce, which may either be useful or interesting to those 

 who may think this object worthy of their attention. As this 

 information was chiefly procured from the Marchioness of 

 Hastings, who interested herself strongly in the subject, it is 

 to be presumed that it is worthy of all reliance. 



This animal is a native of that part of the mountains of 

 Thibet which lies near to the region of perpetual snow, and of 

 which the actual elevation, although very great, has not yet 

 been determined in such a manner as to have satisfied the 

 doubts of all parties. The climate is subject to sudden 

 changes, although it does not appear that the summer tem- 

 perature is ever high; and as that of winter is below the 

 freezing point, the water which then falls is in the form of 

 snow, not of rain. Hence it is understood to be a dry climate, 



Y 2 



