NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 325 
breed having often two kids at a birth, the Kurd Goat having 
seldom less than two; while at the Cape, Angoras descended from a — 
cross with the Boer Goat, generally have twins, often triplets, and 
sometimes four young at a birth. But as Angoras in the Colony 
‘are becoming purer and more what they should be, the tendency 
of ewes to have more than one (even now not common in the best 
stud flocks) becomes less and less.”’ 
The first importation of Angoras into the Cape Colony (or 
South Africa) was made in 1838 by Colonel Henderson, formerly of 
Bombay); and of the fourteen Goats that landed, only two, a ewe 
and her ram kid, may be noticed, for the other twelve rams had been 
rendered impotent before leaving Turkey. As remarked by our 
author :—‘‘ The day on which the little fellow leapt ashore, beside 
his dam, fifty-nine years ago, at Table Bay, is a memorable date 
in the history of South African pastoral products.” Itis indeed! 
for South Africa is economically a “poor man’s country”— 
“black man’s country”—the usual appeliation; take away its 
mining capacity and it is again within measurable distance of a 
pastoral condition. The introduction of the Angora Goat is 
therefore an event of more real significance to many in 8. Africa 
than an elargement of boundaries or a diplomatic triumph. The 
natives from the time they were first met possessed a practically 
indigenous Goat, and the ‘‘ Boer Goat of to-day strikes one as an 
animal peculiarly South African, as it browses on the arid kopjes 
of the Great Karoo.” This hardy animal, with its coat ‘short, 
smooth, and coarse, of almost any colour or combination of 
colours, frequently being dappled,” which can live and thrive 
where other stock would die, with its pungent and strong flesh 
naturally survives, and according to the 1891 census numbered 
then no fewer than 3,444,019, or about 250,000 in excess of the 
number of Angoras. 'They can be trained—the Kapaters—as 
“voerbokken,” leaders to flocks of sheep and understanding 
certain words of command. “It is an odd spectacle to see a 
couple of immense gaily-coloured Kapaters marching as directed 
to the front of a flock, and sedately—one almost imagines proudly 
—leading the way into a kraal or through a gate with the sheep 
trooping closely after them.” These Boer Goats have mies 
the mothers of nearly all the Cape Angoras. 
The volume is well illustrated, and is full of statistics as to a 
