SHEEP AND GOAT KIND. 269 



clean, and wholesome ; they live upon their milk, 

 with oat bread ; they convert a part of it into 

 butter, and some into cheese ; the flesh, indeed, 

 they seldom taste of, as it is a delicacy which they 

 find too expensive ; however, the kid is consider- 

 ed, even by the city epicure, as a great rarity ; 

 and the flesh of the goat, when properly prepared, 

 is ranked by some as no way inferior to venison. 

 In this manner, even in the wildest solitudes, the 

 poor find comforts of which the rich do not think 

 it worth their while to dispossess them : in these 

 mountainous retreats, where the landscape pre- 

 sents only a scene of rocks, heaths, and shrubs, 

 that speak the wretchedness of the soil, these 

 simple people have their feasts, and their plea- 

 sures ; their faithful flock of goats attends them 

 to these awful solitudes, and furnishes them with 

 all the necessaries of life ; while their remote 

 situation happily keeps them ignorant of greater 

 luxury. 



As these animals are apt to stray from the 

 flock, no man can attend above fifty of them at a 

 time. They are fattened in the same manner as 

 sheep ; but, taking every precaution, their flesh is 

 never so good, or so sweet, in our climate, as that 

 of mutton. It is otherwise between the tropics. 

 The mutton there becomes flabby and lean, while 

 the flesh of the goat rather seems to improve ; and 

 in some places the latter is cultivated in prefer- 

 ence to the former. We therefore find this ani- 

 mal in almost every part of the world, as it seems 

 fitted for the necessities of man in both extremes. 

 Towards the north, where the pasture is coarse 



