THE GOAT. 



The Goat is fattened in the fame manner as the Sheep ; but, in our 

 climate, notwithstanding every poffible precaution, the flefh is never fo good 

 or fo fweet as mutton. Between the tropics the cafe is different ; there the 

 mutton becomes lean and flabby, whereas the flefh of the Goat rather 

 improves, and is by fome preferred to the mutton. Thus it appears that this 

 animal feems well adapted to fupply the neceffities of man in both extremes, 

 in almoft every part of the world. In northern countries, where the paflure 

 is barren and coarfe, the Goat finds a fubfiftence among the fhrubs well 

 fuited to his nature ; between the tropics, where the exceffive heat caufes 

 other cattle to degenerate, the Goat is on the contrary nouriflied by the 

 genial warmth, and his flefh improves accordingly. 



The female goes five months with young, and produces from two to 

 four at a birth. The Goat will breed with the Sheep, and the animal fo 

 produced will breed again, but no new race will refult from the intermixture; 

 which clearly proves that, although the Goat and Sheep greatly referable 

 each other in many particulars, the fpecies are, and ever will be, diftinct. 



The Goat is fubjed to great varieties, as to its fize, horns, colour, and 

 hair, which in fome is very rough and fhaggy, in others perfe&ly fmooth, 

 in fome curled, in others long and ftraight ; thefe variations depend much on 

 the country in w^hich it is produced, and the food it meets with ; it is an 

 animal much diffufed, and will breed freely in any country, except in 

 thofe which are very cold, as Canada, where they are obliged to prefer ve a 

 fucceffion by importation. It is remarked, that the fize of the Goat decreafes 

 in proportion to the warmth of the climate in which it is bred, but that it 

 becomes more prolific, and in very warm countries, has been known to bring- 

 forth even five young ones at a birth. It is libidinous even to a proverb, 

 and the period of its life is frequently fhortened by its ardor. The 

 individual, reprefented in the plate, is the portrait of one bred on the 

 mountains of Wales, and the fcenery is the place of his nativity. 



