THE CASHMIR GOAT. 



671 



The Goat is, like several other domesticated animals, able to foretell stormy weather, 

 and always contrives to place itself under shelter before the advent of a storm. The 

 flesh of the Goat is not held in great estimation, and even that of the kid, which is 

 comparatively tender and well-flavored, has fallen into disrepute. The milk is, how- 

 ever, in some demand, being of a rather peculiar flavor, which is grateful to certain 

 palates. 



In its wild state, the Goat is a fleet and agile animal, delighting in rocks and precipi- 

 tous localities, and treading their giddy heights with a foot as sure and an eye as steady 

 as that of the chamois or ibex. Even in domesticated life, this love of clambering is 

 never eradicated, and wherever may be an accessible roof, or rock, or even a hill, there 

 the Goat may be generally found. 



CASHMIER GOAT. 



THE varieties of the Goat are almost numberless, and it will be impossible to engrave 

 or even to notice, more than one or two of the most prominent examples. One of the 

 most valuable of these varieties is the celebrated Cashmir Goat, whose soft silky hair 

 furnishes material for the soft and costly fabrics which are so highly valued in all 

 civilized lands. 



This animal is a native of Thibet and the neighboring locality, but the Cashmir 

 shawls are not manufactured in the same land which supplies the material. The fur 

 of the Cashmir Goat is of two sorts ; a soft, woolly under coat of grayish hair, and a 

 covering of long silken hairs that seem to defend the interior coat from the effects of 

 winter. The woolly under coat is the substance from which the Cashmir shawls are 

 woven, and in order to make a single shawl, a yard-and-a-half square, at least ten Goats 

 are robbed of their natural covering. Beautiful as are these fabrics, they would be sold 

 at a very much lower price but for the heavy and numerous taxes which are laid upon 

 the material in all the stages of its manufacture, and after its completion upon the fin- 

 ished article. Indeed, the English buyer of a Cashmir shawl is forced to pay at least 

 a thousand per cent on his purchase. 



