HISTORY. O 



mperstitions. In short, the Goat appears to have been 

 domesticated wherever the traces are found of that great 

 Western Family of mankind, which, united by analogies of 

 form, speech, and traditionary legends, appears to have been 

 derived from a common source, and spread from a common 

 centre. But the domesticated Goat was not confined to this 

 division of the human race. It extended, beyond a question, 

 all through the boundless regions of Eastern Asia to the 

 ocean, comprehending tribes and nations, which, however 

 distinct from the western family of the human race in aspect, 

 character, and speech, yet agreed with it in this, that the 

 same domesticated animals ministered to the wants of both. 

 But the insular continent of New Holland never possessed 

 the Goat ; for no trace of this, or of any of the ruminating 

 animals which had elsewhere followed the footsteps of man, 

 as instruments of civilization, was found at the discovery of 

 this new world. Neither did it exist in any of the Polyne- 

 sian Islands ; and, more strange and incomprehensible still, 

 no vestige either of the domesticated Goat, or of his uni- 

 versal companions in the ancient world, the Sheep, the Ox, 

 and the Horse, was found in the great American Continent, 

 though peopled from end to end. 



The wild animals of the Caprine group which have been 

 as yet discovered, and described by naturalists, are the fol- 

 lowing : 



1. CAPRA IBEX, the Alpine Ibex. 



2. CAPRA CAUCASICA, the Caucasian Ibex. 



3. CAPRA SIBIRICA, the Siberian Ibex. 



4. CAPRA NUBIANA, the Nubian or xVbyssinian Ibex. 



5. CAPRA ^EGAGRUS, the ^Egagrus. 



6. CAPRA JEMLAHICA, the Jemlah Goat. 



7. CAPRA JAHRAL, the Jahral Goat. 



The ALPINE IBEX, the Bouquetin of the natives of the 

 Alps, the Stein-bok, or Rock-Goat of the Germans, inhabits the 

 Pyrenees, the Alps of Switzerland, and the Tyrol, and pro- 

 bably other mountainous parts of Europe. He resembles the 



