48 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



REPORT ON THE FLEECES OF THE CASHMERE, OR SHAWL GOAT. 



The undersigned a sj^ecial committee, to wliom has been 

 referred for examination the fleeces of the Cashmere or Shawl 

 Goats, exhibited by Dr. D. C. Ambler, at the fair of the American 

 Institute^ respectfully report : 



That, they have examined with much interest the fleeces sub- 

 mitted to them, and as well from their own observations, as from 

 the results of a microscopic examination, made and certified to, 

 by several gentlemen of scientific eminence, well known to them, 

 are convinced that the fibre of these fleeces is identical in charac- 

 ter, and fully equal in value to that from which the highly prized 

 Cashmere shawls are made. 



The animals from which these fleeces were taken are full bred, 

 and direct descendants from the stock imported into this country 

 by Dr. James B. Davis, of South Carolina, in 1849, from the 

 northern slope of the Himmalaya mountains. They were at first 

 supposed by many to be of the same variety as those described 

 in works on natural history, under the various names of Cash- 

 mere^ Angora^ Thibet, and Shawl Goat, but from the best informa- 

 tion we are able to obtain, we are constrained to believe they 

 are a different and more valuable variety. 



They certainly are so, if those imported into France by Napo- 

 leon the first, under the guidance of the celebrated M. Terneaux, 

 and which have been bred in that country and in England to the 

 present time, be the animal usually known by the name of Cash- 

 mere or Shawl goat. Of the latter, " the produce of a male is 

 about 4 oz. and of a female about two oz., and the coat is a 

 mixture of long coarse hair and of short fine wool, this latter 

 beginning to be loose early in April, and is collected easily and 

 expeditiously by combing the animals two or three times with 

 such a comb as is used for horses' manes." While the fleeces on 

 exhibition, and now under examination are not of this compound 

 character of " long coarse hair and of short fine underwool," but 

 of uniform fineness throughout, and amounting to from four to 

 eight pounds each per annum. 



The enterprise exhibited by the introduction and propagation 

 of these animals in this country cannot be too highly prized. 

 If the introduction of Merino sheep was a rich boon to our country 

 which never contemplated anything beyond the improvement of 

 wool from the value of 25 to 50 or 75 cents per pound, and that 

 too at a comparative loss of the carcass; as to its flesh value 

 there can be no doubt that a much greater benefit must result 



