450 ON THE COMMERCE AND USES OF THE HAIR OF ANIMALS. 



and pattern is to be embroidered, three men are appointed to the work, 

 and are engaged upon it for three months. But when a rich and rare 

 pair of shawls is to be embroidered, the men will be eighteen months 

 and even two years, in finishing the elaborate patterns which have to 

 be produced upon the cloth. The embroidered borders of the finest 

 shawls are made separately, and are afterwards so cleverly attached 

 to the middle that the eye cannot detect the junction. This is the 

 most curious and ingenious part of the fabrication. A lady's shawl of 

 the finest and most costly description, is, in fact, nothing less than a 

 piece of cunningly devised and delicately j ointed patchwork, setting at 

 defiance the most rigorous scrutiny to discover a seam. The labour 

 required to produce a first-rate Cashmere shawl is immense, and this 

 will account for the fact that a shawl will cost sometimes 6007. or 7001. 

 before it passes the rocky portals of the valley of Cashmere. These 

 shawls always form part of the presents made to persons who visit the 

 courts of Indian princes. 



Thirty ounces of wool, valued at 8s. or 9s., is all that is required in the 

 manufacture of a shawl a yard and a half square. The immense cost 

 of these shawls in the European market is, therefore, a subject of much 

 wonder to those unacquainted with the history of their manufacture 

 and transportation. A heavy duty is first paid upon the wool ; then a 

 further tax upon the yarn when it reaches the bazaar ; and the manu- 

 factured shawl, when taken to the custom-house is further taxed accord- 

 ing to the discretion or caprice of the collector. If intended for the 

 European market, the shawls have to pass through the ordeal of 

 still heavier exactions. They must be borne from Cashmere across the 

 Indus to Peshawur, on the frontier of Afghanistan, a journey of twenty 

 days, upon the back of a man, the road being often impassable by 

 camels or mules, deep precipices are crossed upon suspension bridges of 

 rope, and perpendicular rocks climbed by means of wooden ladders. 

 At various stages of this journey taxes are exacted, amounting to 36s. 

 or 42s. in the aggregate. From Peshawur to near the confines of 

 Europe, tribute is paid at many custom-houses ; but this forbearance of 

 the marauders of Afghanistan and Persia, and of the Turkomanic 

 hordes, must also be purchased at a high price. The precious burden 

 is thus conveyed to Europe over the Caucasus, and through Russia, or 

 as is now frequent, through the Turkish provinces to Constantinople. 



The Rocky Mountain goat (Ovis montana), of North America, has 

 a fleece almost as valuable as that of the Cashmere goat. It has a 

 shaggy appearance, in consequence of the protrusion of the long hair 

 beyond the wool, which is white and soft. It has been named by some 

 authors the Mazama Americana. The pile is of two kinds, one long 

 and coarse like that of lamb's wool, the other like the under coat of 

 the poodle dog. It is thought that this goat might prove a valuable 

 addition to the fleece-bearing animals now domesticated, for the pile 

 would improve by the care and attention that could be bestowed upon 



