THE ANGORA GOAT. 
173 
great activity of the animal, rendering its confinement 
to any field or pasture difficult. I have known a 
number of Angoras brought into a woolshed to be 
shorn ; they came in quietly enough, but when the 
shearers commenced to catch them for shearing, they 
speedily bounded over all the divisions between the pens, 
and were outside the woolshed, over gates and fences 
in a few seconds. I have brought a small flock into a 
yard or pen, of which a slab hut with bark roof formed 
one fence : on commencing to earmark the kids, which 
were two or three months old, one of them made two 
or three bounds, and in as many seconds was calmly 
looking down on me from the ridge of the hut. To 
get on the top of a post and rail fence, and walk along 
it for a few panels, would be no difficult feat for them. 
Their ability to subsist on poor pastures, has been 
mentioned, but in my experience, no animal that has 
not sufficient nourishment will produce either a good 
fleece or much profit to the owner, and it is poor 
economy to keep any animal on an insufficient supply 
of food. 
In the year 1856, the first importation of Angora 
goats into Victoria was successfully accomplished. They 
were seven in number, being the survivors of a larger 
number shipped. Mr. Sichel, a merchant of Mel- 
bourne, had heard of their successful introduction at 
the Cape colony, and learning that they had in- 
creased and thriven well in that climate, he deter- 
mined to introduce them into Australia, and after con- 
siderable difficulties, a small flock was secured by 
an agent at Broussa, near Trebizond, which was 
shipped by way of Constantinople to London, where 
the goats were transferred to a vessel sailing for Port 
