MILCH GOATS, ETC. 191 



'-5 



venison ; owing probably in part to the excel- 

 lence of the grass upon which they feed. 

 Tlie flesh of the sheep is to the New Mexi- 

 can what that of the hog is to the people of 

 our Western States, — while pork is but sel- 

 dom met with in Northern Mexico. The 

 sheep there are also remarkable for horny 

 appendages, which frequently branch out in 

 double or triple pairs, giving the head a 

 very whimsical and grotesque appearance. 

 I have seen some of them with at least six 



direction. 



horns, each poiliting in a different 



Although the raising of goats has not been 

 made so much of a business as the raising of 

 fheep, the former are nevertheless to be found 

 in great abundance. Their milk is much 

 more generally used than that of the cow, 

 ^ot only because it is sweeter and richer, but 

 because the goat, hke the hiirro, sustains itself 

 ^pon the mere rubbish that grows in the 

 iiioimtain passes, and on the most barren hills, 

 where cows could not exist without being 

 regularly fed. The flesh of the goat is coarse, 

 '^ut wholesome, and being cheaper than mut- 

 ^n or beef^ it is very freely used by the poor, 

 l^hat of the kid is hardlv suroassed for deU- 



and 



With regard to domestic fowh, it may be 

 jvorthy of remark, that there is not to be 

 ^o^nd, as I beheve, in all New Mexico, a sin- 

 gle species (saving half a dozen turkeys per- 

 {laps, and a few pigeons), except the common 

 lien, of which, however, there is a sufficient 



PL-. 



