GO A TS IN CITIES 1 1 



Scotland, adapts itself to rich pasture and artificial 

 feeding, and acquires the temperament, as well as the 

 digestion, of domestication. The goats, as a rule, 

 acquire neither ; and though among their various 

 breeds there are exceptions, the English goat is not 

 among them. It remains, just as in the days of old 

 Greece, the enemy of trees, uncontained by fences or 

 walls, inquisitive, pugnacious, restless and omnivorous. 

 It is so unsuited for the settled life of the English farm, 

 that rich pasture makes it ill, and a good clay soil, on 

 which cattle grow fat, soon kills it. But the goat is 

 far from being disqualified for the service of modern 

 civilization by these survivals of primitive habits. 

 Though it cannot live comfortably in the smiling 

 pastures of the low country, it is perfectly willing to 

 exchange the rocks of the mountain for a stable-yard 

 in town. Its love for stony places is amply satisfied by 

 the granite pavement of a ' mews,' and it has been 

 ascertained that goats fed in stalls and allowed to 

 wander in paved yards and courts, live longer and 

 enjoy better health than those tethered even on light 

 pastures with frequent changes of food. In parts of 

 New York the city-kept goats are said to flourish on 

 the paste-daubed paper of the advertisements which they 

 nibble from the hoardings. It is beyond doubt that 

 these hardy creatures are exactly suited for living in 

 large towns. Bricks and mortar and paving-stones 



