THE IBEX 319 



States, Australia, and South Africa. The last named exports 

 hair annually to the value of sometimes as much as three- 

 quarters of a million pounds sterling. In England the 

 Yorkshire mills absorb most of the imported raw material, 

 which is converted into fine shawls, velveteens, braidings, 

 and trimmings for gentlemen's coats. 



KASHMIR GOAT (Capra hircus, var.). 



The Kashmir Goat is really most abundant in Tibet and 

 the Kirghiz steppes region ; but it has been introduced even 

 into Central Europe. It is a small animal which is highly 

 prized for its long, fine, silky fleece, which varies in colour 

 and weight with the altitude at which the Goat is pastured 

 on the high mountain slopes. In the lowest vales the 

 animal is nearly pure white ; it takes on a yellowish tinge 

 in the more elevated regions ; while it is of a bright ochre 

 colour in the highest altitudes. Below the coarse upper 

 hair is fine curled wool close to the skin, and it is this 

 fine material which is converted into the beautiful and 

 costly shawls for which Kashmir has long been famous. It 

 is said that an animal only yields three ounces of the finest 

 wool, and the product of ten Goats is required to make a 

 shawl one and a half yards square. The fabric is woven by 

 slow hand processes, a coloured pattern often occupying 

 four persons for a whole year. British and French machine 

 weavers now manufacture the closest imitations of the 

 coveted Kashmir speciality, at a price far less than the 

 patient Asiatic craftsman can produce them. 



IBEX (Capra ibex). 

 Coloured Plate XXI. Fig. i. 



Of the wild Goats the Ibex is the likeliest forbear of the 

 domesticated species. It is the wild Goat of Europe and 

 Western Asia, and there are varieties in the Himalaya, 

 Abyssinia, and Southern Palestine and Arabia. It was this 

 last named which is believed to have been hunted by Jacob, 

 when he was in search of venison for his father, Isaac. 



