410 
SHEEP AND WOOL. 
doing so little among the nations of Europe. But what has 
not been done by Spaniards has been done by Englishmen. 
A few of these merino sheep found their way to Botany 
Bay; they were carried there and afterwards neglected, but 
in spite of that they flourished and increased; and from that 
small beginning has arisen an enormous trade; and now our 
largest supply of best wools is from our colonies in Australia. 
We get other kinds of wool from Saxony, and Saxony wool 
is perhaps the best spinning wool known in the world. All 
German wool, however, is not so good, but we get from 
Germany large quantities of the finest kind for cloth. At 
the present time we are deriving a considerable quantity of 
fine wool from America, and America is carrying on its 
woollen manufacture from the production of its own sheep. 
Many parts of North America produce very fine wool. It 
would seem almost hopeless for the English farmer while he 
produces very fine mutton to compete with America, Ger¬ 
many, and Australia in the production of the best wool; but 
at the same time the mixture of breeds has presented us with 
very fine wool, and the day may come when we shall pro¬ 
duce the best mutton for our tables and also produce the 
best wool. I have not time to speak of Chinese and Indian 
wool and the wool of other portions of the world. We ob¬ 
tain it from almost every part, but none is more remarkable 
than those which I have mentioned. 
I will now refer to other animals which yield us wool as 
well as sheep. The camel yields a wool which is occasionally 
woven by the women of the country into a kind of coarse 
garment. The other creatures which come in competition 
with the sheep are the goat, the llama, the alpaca, the 
vicugna, and the guanaco. The goat itself is difficult to 
distinguish from the sheep, but the common goat does not 
produce anything like the quantity of wool that the sheep 
does. But in certain parts of the world the goat produces 
very fine wool which has been manufactured into the finest 
garments. It yields a fleece of from one and a half to four 
pounds of fine fleecy long hair. In 1848 it was first brought 
into the markets of Europe. I will just remark in passing 
that what w r e call velveteens and plushes are mixtures of 
cotton and wool. Silk and wool are also mixed, and these 
hairs of the Angora goat are particularly well adapted for 
this mixture. There is a goat in Cashmere w hich yields an 
exceedingly fine wool, which is employed in the manufac¬ 
ture of those beautiful Cashmere shawls which are such 
objects of desire to those w ho wish to appear in the most 
beautiful forms of dress. This goat yields a fleece of which 
