HISTORY. 11 



yond the animals which approach the coasts, or are found in 

 the few countries which are accessible. We may expect that, 

 as future explorers advance into the wilder regions of tjie 

 two continents, the natural history of the Caprine family will 

 be illustrated and extended. But, as domesticated Goats are 

 found in the possession of almost all the nations of the Old 

 Continents, a natural inquiry, even in the present state of 

 our knowledge, arises, as to the parent stock from which 

 these animals, so generally diffused, have been derived. 



Ancient writers frequently speak of Wild Goats in a man- 

 ner which leads us to conclude that they regarded them 

 merely as the wild of the common race. But the notices of 

 these writers are so vague and imperfect, that we do not 

 know whether they referred to the Ibex, the ^Egagrus, the 

 Chamois Antelope, or any other species formerly inhabiting 

 the same countries, but now driven away or destroyed. The 

 opinion prevalent until a recent period was, that the Ibex 

 was the parent stock of the common Goats ; but since the 

 JEgagrus has been admitted to be a distinct species, the 

 general opinion of naturalists has been, that the latter rather 

 than the Ibex, is the wild of th^ common Goat. But the 

 ^Egagrus does not approach nearer in habitudes and form to 

 the common Goats than the Ibex ; and although the latter 

 inhabits a higher range of mountains, he seems to resign his 

 natural liberty with equal readiness. Further, the Jemlah 

 Goat, and, by analogy, we may believe, others of the genus, 

 seem to be all endowed with the faculty of resigning their 

 natural freedom, and submitting to domestication. The most 

 probable supposition, therefore, is, that the domesticated 

 Goats have been derived not from one, but from different 

 species. Not only do the Goats of different countries differ 

 from one another, but there exist in the same country, under 

 the same conditions of climate and food, races so divergent, 

 that it is scarcely possible to believe that they have not been 

 derived from stirpes distinct in the wild state. The Syrian 

 Goat, so called, with a convex face and with an udder in the 



