HISTORY. 



13 



while the hair is left. It is then spun by females, and after- 

 wards the threads are dyed of the colours required. A shawl 

 of the finest fabric takes a year or more in making. Four 

 persons, and in the case of plain shawls, two, sit at a frame, 

 using numerous needles. In working, the rough part of the 

 shawl is uppermost. A superintendent regulates the pattern, 

 and when the shawl is woven it is carried to the custom- 

 house, stamped, and a duty paid upon it corresponding to its 

 fineness and value.* In the province of Cashmere alone, it 

 is computed that 30,000 of these beautiful fabrics are manu- 

 factured every year. They are in universal demand over the 

 East for their softness, durability, and the beauty of their 

 colours. The Goats which yield the wool are chiefly derived 

 from Thibet ; Cashmere itself being too warm for the growth 

 of the finest wool. The Goats of Thibet and the neighbour- 

 ing countries have been introduced into Europe, in the hope 

 of producing the fine wool which gives them so great a value 

 in their native clime. In France especially, eager endeavours 

 were made to establish the manufacture of shawls similar to 

 those of Cashmere ; but from the small quantity of wool 

 yielded by the Goats, and the great manual labour required, 

 the manufacture did not succeed as a branch of national 

 industry. Attempts, too, were made to introduce these Goats, 

 for the production of wool, into England, but with still less 

 prospect of a favourable result, from the humidity of the 

 climate. The native -country of these Goats, it is to be 

 observed, being vastly elevated, is subject to extremes of 

 temperature ; and the growth of fine wool being a natural 

 provision for keeping the animals warm, it would probably 

 soon cease to be produced in more temperate climates. 



Stretching from the mountains of Thibet into the elevated 

 steppes of the interior, northward to the Arctic Regions, 

 eastward through Chinese Tartary to the ocean, and westward 

 through the vast dominions of Russia to the confines of Europe. 



* Tour in the Upper Provinces of Hindostan. 



