GENDS CAPRA. 
109 
■which noxv renders the original stock of the various 
races of the utmost difficulty to determine. 
The first of tliose which comes under our notice, 
though not so abundantly kept, formed in the pri- 
meval ages a large portion of the flocks in southern 
Europe, and more particularly in Asia and Egypt ; 
nnd figures of goats of a large and strong race, but 
not very nearly approaching to the wild animals from 
tvhich they are conjectured to have sprung, have 
been handed down upon monuments of an aged date. 
They are now used for their flesh and skins, and 
hair or wool. In this country the former is little 
esteemed, though kid forms no despicable repast. 
Gloves of a fine kind are made from the skins sub- 
jected to maceration, and the coats of it separated ; 
nnd it is from goat skins that the real morocco leather 
E manufactured, being supposed to take the dye 
better than those of sheep. The hair or wool of one 
''ariety is well known as the source of the beautiful 
Cashmere manufacture. 
In common language, the appellation of “ goat 
and “ sheep” is applied to very different looking ani- 
mals. Xhe one, clothed in a fine thick coveting, 
familiarly known as wool, with the horns, if any, 
bending laterally, and generally spirally ; the other, 
Covered with shaggy hair, a long beard, and the 
horns directed with a gradual bend upwards or 
backwards. When the different animals are, however, 
brought together, this generic distinction is not so 
easily perceived, and there is a running into each 
