ARTIODACTYLA 333 



camel hair 5, cashmere 3. Mohair is the strongest, with best luster, but 

 not so fine. 



The Angora goats are decidedly browsers, preferring twigs and 

 leaves of shrubs to herbaceous plants, and prefer hills and rocky cliffs 

 to meadows and swamps, hence are suitable for waste mountain lands 

 not available for other domestic stock. They have been utilized in keep- 

 ing farm and pasture lands free from brush, and in California in 

 keeping the "fire breaks" clear of weeds and shrubbery, thus reducing 

 the forest-fire hazard. They may be pastured with cattle and sheep 

 without much competition for food. 46 There are said to be 250,000,000 

 acres- of land in the United States not suitable for tillage and not suita- 

 ble for pasturage for cattle, horses or sheep, but suitable for goats. 47 



The danger of introducing goats of any kind into any region and 

 leaving them without control is illustrated by incidents discussed in 

 Chapter iv. They have almost denuded certain islands of vegetation, 

 and, nothing being left to hold the soil on steep slopes, it has been 

 eroded away, leaving only barren rocks. 



Goat skins are much used for various purposes. It is estimated that 

 in 1923-1924 3,000,000 Chinese goat skins and 2,000,000 Chinese kid 

 skins reached the markets of the world. 48 



The wild mountain sheep, or bighorns, and the mountain goats, of 

 the mountains of western United States, northern Mexico, British 

 America and Alaska, are not sufficiently abundant to be of much eco- 

 nomic importance, but they are highly interesting from esthetic, recrea- 

 tional, educational and scientific points of view. In 1926 there were 

 said to be 17,837 mountain goats (mostly in Alaska), and 12,052 

 mountain sheep in our national forests, but the count for 1927 was 

 18,418 goats and 13,285 sheep. 49 



Mexican bighorn (Oms mexicana) : 2 stomachs, "full of freshly 

 eaten and half -chewed vegetation, and most of the plants composing 

 the contents were easily recognized by the stems, leaves and fruits. 

 The leaves, twigs and carpels of Cercocarpus parvifolius formed a 

 large part of the contents, while the leaves, twigs and seed pods of 

 Philadelphia microphyllus were present in less abundance," with a 

 conspicuous amount of wild onion and about 2 per cent grass. Meat 

 tender, juicy and delicious. The meat of an old ram was "tough and 



"Thompson, The Angora goat, Farmers' Bull., No. 137, 1901. Heller, The Angora 

 goat, Farmers' Bull, No. 573, 1914. 



47 Lantz, Farmers' Bull., No. 330, p. 14, 1908. 



48 Innis, The fur trade of Canada, table opp. p. 76, 1927. 



49 Adams, Roosevelt Wild Life Bull, in, 558, 1926. New York World Almanac for 

 1928, p. 364- 



