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tral Asia prior to the advent of our Savior on earth, and at 

 a remote period anterior to its introduction to its present 

 recognized home in Angora, Asia Minor. 



There is an entire absence of any reference to this animal 

 as characterized by its long, silken and attractive fleece, by 

 any of the earliest classic writers of antiquity, or in that old- 

 est of historic monuments, the Bible. The goat is frequently 

 mentioned, but no allusion is made to its fleece, hence we 

 may infer the long fleece-bearing goat was introduced sub- 

 sequently to Asia Minor during some incursion of predatory 

 tribes from Central Asia, where we have abundant proof of 

 its existence in the exportation of mohair from Chinese ports 

 before the exportation of the raw material was permitted 

 from Angora. 



The earliest notice we have of the Angora goat is in the 

 sixteenth century, and though since known to naturalists as 

 possessing a valuable fleece for the manufacture of useful and 

 rare textile fabrics, its acclimation in Europe has been but 

 feebly tested, and in fact its success in any other clime than 

 Angora seems to have been deferred to the enterprise, en- 

 ergy and intelligence of Americans, who, with characteristic 

 zeal, have imported them in considerable numbers, and are 

 now reproducing them with fleeces fully up in fineness, and 

 even better, than the clip from imported parents. 



Owing to prohibitory restrictions preventing the exporta- 

 tion of these animals until recent years from Angora, 

 coupled with the high cost of transatlantic transportation, 

 the possession of Angoras has been a privilege enjoyed only 

 by a few, and consequently regarded by the masses as an 

 exceptional luxury without practical utility or profit. 



The first Angoras imported to the United States, owing to 

 fraudulent representations as to the value of the mohair, 

 sold for fabulous sums. Buyers of this importation failing 

 to obtain a market for the mohair, the interest sickened and 

 was finally lost sight of in the more engrossing events of the 

 late civil war. 



