340 Introduction of tht 



What the exact state of the iumraer, however, may be, we are 

 not thoroughly informed ; and it is probable, that too much 

 stress has been laid on this circumstance in the fears which 

 have been entertained respecting the naturalization of the 

 animal in Scotland ; as Mr. Grant's flock seems to have been 

 thoroughly inured to a district which, both in summer and 

 winter, is subject to frequent rains. There is indeed no reason 

 to fear, from the analogy of many other animals which are 

 in time educated to bear all climates, that this also may 

 become habituated to one so different from that to which it 

 belongs. What effect such a change may have, on the wool, is 

 another and an important question, which can however only 

 be determined by experience. Some prospective judgment 

 may perhaps be formed respecting this subject, by the conse- 

 quences produced by similar alterations in the case of Merino 

 sheep ; but I am not. aware that a difference in the quantity of 

 rain is supposed to have any effect in altering the quality of 

 their wool. 



No accurate account has been yet received of the range of 

 temperature in those regions inhabited by the Thibet goat, nor 

 of the mean annual heat; so that it is impossible to institute 

 any comparison between that important circumstance and the 

 climate of Scotland. It is a natural consequence of trans- 

 ferring a deep-furred animal from a cold to a warm climate, 

 that its fur should be diminished in quantity, as well as in the 

 fineness of its quality. This change has accordingly been 

 found to occur in India to those goats which have been brought 

 down to the plains of Bengal ; but the return to a colder 

 region soon restores their wool to its pristine condition. Yet 

 there is so wide a difference between the temperature of Scot- 

 land and that of Bengal, that no fears need be entertained of 

 any change to this extent ; while the permanence of many of 

 the finer-wooled sheep, under a considerable range of climate, 

 renders it probable, that the loss of quality which the fleeces 

 might experience in Scotland, would not be such as to deprive 

 them of their value, should it even in some degree diminish the 

 quantity and quality of the produce. 



