Climbing for White Goats 



shore. Besides this territory over which 

 the species is generally distributed, there 

 are a number of out-lying localities, like 

 Mount Whitney, a peak or two in Colo- 

 rado, and a few other points where white 

 goats have been found. 



For most of the year the animal wears 

 a shaggy coat of long, coarse hair, beneath 

 which lies a heavy under-fleece of white 

 cotton-like wool of very fine texture. 

 The long, coarse top-coat sheds the rain 

 or the snow like a thatched roof, while 

 the under coat is thus protected from the 

 wet, and keeps the heat in and the cold 

 out. Although the goat is generally a 

 shaggy, rough-looking creature, yet in 

 summer it sheds its coat, and for a time 

 is almost as naked as a newly-shorn sheep. 

 If it could be obtained in commercial 

 quantities, the wool of the white goat 

 would be valuable. Specimens which I 

 furnished some years ago to Dr. Thomas 

 Taylor, Microscopist of the Agricultural 

 Department at Washington, were called 

 by some wool experts fine Cashmere 

 wool; by others, Australian fine; and by 

 still others, fine wool from various foreign 

 ports. Dr. Taylor pronounced the wool 

 finer than Cashmere wool. In the moun- 

 tains of British Columbia, excellent blan- 



114 



