C44 



GOAT. 



horns of this species are of a brownish ash colour, 

 uniformly arched backwards, but little divergent, and 

 with a slight recurvature toward the points. In their 

 section, the}' are compressed laterally, with sharp 

 angular edges to the front, and with a sort of furrow 

 which renders the edge sharper. These horns make 

 an angle with the frontal bone ; and are marked 

 with projecting tubercles, between which the surface 

 is slightly striated. Some of the authorities describe 

 these tubercles as increasing with and indicating the 

 age of the animal, but the point is not fully ascer- 

 tained. Indeed the animal is naturally so wild, and 

 can make its escape so readily, in places where it is 

 not so easily followed, that it cannot be subjected to 

 very accurate examination. On the posterior edge 

 the horns are rounded ; in the male they are some- 

 times three feet in length ; but they are usually 

 smaller in the females. The general colour of the 

 male is greyish brown, with a dark line along the 

 back and a black tail : the front of the head is black- 

 ish, darkest towards the nose, and reddish on the 

 sides : the beard and long hair on the throat are red- 

 dish brown. The female is smaller than the male, 

 and paler in the colour. 



The wild goat is chiefly found on the eastern 

 mountains, in those of Caucasus, Persia, and various 

 parts of Hindostan. That it exists in Europe is not 

 very clearly made out. The ibex inhabits some of 

 the more lofty mountains, where there are abundance 

 of domesticated goats ; and as the domestic he-goats 

 breed readily with the female ibexes, it is very pro- 

 bable that those specimens, apparently intermediate 

 between the common goat and the ibex, which have 

 occasionally, though rarely been met with, are only 

 hybrids between the wild and the tame goat. Indeed 

 both the wild goat and the ibex vary so much in dif- 

 ferent countries, that is not very easy to draw a clear 

 and satisfactory line of distinction between them. 

 Indeed direct crosses between the domestic goat and 

 the ibex are not uncommon in Switzerland ; and the 

 males of this cross are not only capable of breeding 

 back to the pure blood of the goat, but are much 

 esteemed for that purpose, as being larger in size than 

 he-goats of the pure breed. Indeed it is probable 

 that there is no muleism in the matter ; but that the 

 ibex and the goat may breed freely, so as that the 

 mixed progeny may among themselves be prolific ; 

 for, of all the larger domestic animals, goats are 

 probably the most free breeders. 



The great distinction of the species is in the horns, 

 and these are gradual. The ibex of the Alps has 

 the horns remarkably square ; that of Caucasus has 

 them more rounded ; while the Abyssinian variety 

 makes an approach to the mountain wild goat, and 

 that again to the domesticated ones. 



In animals which are so flexible to climate, it is 

 not easy to establish either a local or a progressive 

 nistory with any sort of accuracy ; and, therefore, we 

 must either adopt the plan of endless detail, naming 

 the goat of every locality, which is at once the most 

 useless of all operations in natural history, or we 

 must be contented to mention only two or three of 

 those which have the most striking differences ; and 

 thev are all different in country as well as in appear- 

 ance, except m so rar as they 'have been transported 

 from one locality to another. In this respect the 

 removal of goats does not appear to be so successful 

 as that of some other animals. It is generally under- 

 etood that the goats of the Himalaya will not live 



even in the most hilly districts of peninsular India 

 although the' temperature there is said not to be very 

 different from that of their native mountains. The 

 vegetation differs very greatly, however ; for, when 

 we ascend the Himalaya as far as the region of the 

 native goats, we meet with a vegetation which is 

 quite European in its character ; whereas, in the 

 south of India, the mountain jungles are in part 

 at least composed of bamboos. There is another 

 thing. The goats of the Himalaya, especially those 

 most valuable ones which inhabit the northern slopes 

 of the mountains, and which are said not to he met 

 with any where to the southward of the summits, inhabit 



Jemlah Goat. 



a country rendered moist from the stores of snow 

 on its mountain tops, as well as occasional showers 

 puring the summer. In the south of India, on the 

 other hand, both in Dukhun and in Mysore, but more 

 especially in the latter, there are many of the more 

 elevated districts in which there is no rain for a 

 considerable part of the year, and where the mon- 

 soon sometimes misses, and there is no rain for two 

 years. Now, the Cashmere goat, or shawl goat, as 

 it is called, is an animal well provided, by the nature 

 of its covering, for enduring changes of the weather, 

 and especially the falling of rain, and, from being 

 thus qualified, it is not adapted for the burning 

 drought which sometimes visits the central parts of 

 southern India, above the Ghauts or passes of the 

 mountains. Some specimens of this far-famed goat, 

 which, after all, is merely a variety of the common 

 one, have been brought to Europe, and, both in Eng- 

 land and in France, they have bred freely. In 1828, 

 a Mr. Tower obtained from the Society of Arts in 

 London their large medal, for having produced a 

 s:oat's-hair shawl equal to those of Cashmere, though 

 both the growth and the manufacture of this country. 

 This gentleman kept his Cashmere goats on a farm 

 in Essex, and, from four first imported, his flock 

 amounted, in a few years, to more than two dozen. 

 We believe that those goats did not feed upon the 

 rich pastures, or relish the vegetation of the ordinary 

 razing-grounds, whether native or exotic. The dry 

 common was their favourite place of resort, and their 

 most common food was furze, the prickly shoots of 

 which they preferred to every other vegetable. 



Considerable attention was paid to the keeping of 

 these animals, and the fine wool was obtained by 

 combing their common, or longer hair, with an in- 

 strument not very unlike the currycomb used for 

 trimming horses. We believe that the fine wool is 



