310 CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



THE CASHMERE GOAT. 



CASHMERE is the name both of a country and a capital city. The country is a fertile valley, entirely 

 inclosed by lofty mountains, in the north-west extremity of India ; and it is surrounded by the 

 countries of the Sikhs, the Afghans, the Thibetians, and the Chinese Tartars. The city is very large, 

 containing nearly two hundred thousand inhabitants. The Cashmeriana have become celebrated, not 

 only throughout Asia, but in Europe likewise, for the beautiful shawls they produce. These shawls 

 are made both long and square, the former measuring generally fifty-four inches wide, and a hundred 

 and twenty-six long ; the latter are from sixty-three to seventy-two inches square. The finest of 

 them are composed of a material exquisitely soft and warm, surpassing in this respect probably any 

 other i/hat has ever been fabricated for clothing ; it is derived entirely from the Cashmere goat. This 

 nnimal will not admit of a particular description ; it 'is subject to many varieties, differing both in 

 colour and in the quality of the wool, or rather the fine hair of which the fleece is composed. 



The principal points in the most approved breeds are large ears, the limbs slender and clearly 

 formed, the horns not spirally twisted, and, above all, the fleece being long, straight, and silky. 

 Besides the true Cashmere breed, from which originally the celebrated Cashmere shawls were made, 

 there are several others which have been employed for the same purpose in different parts of India ; 

 and there is a Tartar half-breed, which has been found to survive in a colder climate. 



The wool is imported principally from Thibet and Tartary, in which countries the kind of goat 

 which produces the wool best adapted to the shawl manufacture thrives better than in most others. 

 That which is brought from Kodauk is deemed the best, its price in Cashmere being from ten to 

 twenty rupees for a tiirmk of twelve pounds. It is to the peculiar beauty and fine texture of this 

 wool that the shawls owe the high estimation in which they are held. This substance forms the inner 

 coat with which the goat is covered ; and the dark gray colour which belongs to it in a natural state 

 is removed from it by a bleaching process to which it is subjected in Cashmere, and which is effected 

 principally by a preparation of rice-flour. 



MM. Ternaud and Jaubert were some years ago sent on a mission to bring some Cashmere goats 

 to France, and some of them were purchased by M. Polonceau, of Versailles. Having accidentally 

 seen an Angora goat, whose hair had an extraordinarily silky appearance, resembling long, coarse, but 

 very soft down, the idea struck him that from those two varieties there might result a third, possessing 

 some joint qualities of the other two. Acting upon it, he had soon the pleasure of seeing spring 

 up around him a little progeny of Cashmere-Angola goats, 'Whose coats contained a considerable 

 quantity of long, fine, soft, glossy down, in every respect fitted for the purposes of shawl-weaving. 

 In 1820, the Societe Royale et Centrale d' Agriculture de Paris, acquainted with these interesting 

 results, and that M. Polonceau's flock were in the third generation, awarded him their large gold 

 medal. 



Mr. Eiley, a resident of New South Wales, having succeeded with two flocks of the finest Saxon 

 sheep procurable in Germany, thought also of introducing into the colony the Cashmere goat. His 

 son was therefore directed to inspect the flock under the care of M. Teruaux. He found that the 

 quantity of down on each goat was so extremely small not averaging above three ounces that he 

 deemed the animal wholly unfit for the object in view. The project of sending some of these goats 

 to Australia was therefore abandoned. 



Mr. Towers, of Weald Hall, Essex, purchased two males and two females from M. Ternaux's 

 flock, and brought them safely to his residence. In his park they continued in health, and multiplied 

 steadily. They showed no impatience of cold, and were very healthy, requiring only the occasional 

 shelter of a shed in very rough weather. In "spring, summer, and autumn, they grazed like sheep, and 

 were fed during winter with hay and refuse vegetables from the garden ; but their favourite food was 

 the gorse* which they devoured eagerly, without being annoyed by its prickles. 



In 1828, Mr. Towers had three shawls made of the down produced by his goats, the yarn being 

 spun by Messrs. Pease, of Darlington, and the shawls being woven by Messrs. Miller and Sons, of 

 Paisley. The Society of Arts presented to him for these results their gold medal, aud pronounced ono 



Ulex Europeans. 



