THE GOAT. 
5 
HISTORY. 
intermixture of the blood of animals originally distinct; just as it is known that certain gallinaceous fowls, of distinct species, 
breed together in the poultry-yard, and produce a fruitful progeny. 
The Goat, extended throughout so many climates and distant countries, and subjected to conditions of life far different from 
those to which his natural instincts adapt him, must present himself to us with great variations of form and aspect, independently 
of the diversities arising from those of the parent stock. Sometimes the horns disappear in one or both sexes, and in certain cases 
the animals become polycerate; sometimes the hair is long, and sometimes it is as short as in the Fallow Deer; and sometimes 
the beard is very long and sometimes it is rudimental. The colour assumes every variety from sandy-black to milk-white, and 
the size and form of the body are greatly varied. Of the Goats of Central Asia the most celebrated and best known in Europe 
are those of Thibet, which are noted beyond all others for the soft and delicate wool they produce, and which falls off in the 
warmer season, affording the material of one of the most beautiful fabrics of the Eastern looms. These Goats are long in the 
body, having large falcated horns, stout limbs, and long glossy hair, frequently a foot and a half in length, trailing almost to the 
ground. The colour is frequently milk-white, but more generally it is brown, with points of a golden yellow. The wool, tending 
of itself to fall off at a certain season, is easily separated by means of combs, while the hair is left. It is then spun by females, 
and afterwards the threads arc/lyed of the colours required. A shawl of the finest fabric takes a year or more in making. Four 
persons, and in the case of plain shawls, two, sit at a frame, using numerous needles. In working, the rough part of the shawl is 
uppermost. A headsman superintends and regulates the pattern, and when the shawl is woven it is carried to the custom-house, 
stamped, and a duty paid upon it corresponding to its fineness and value.* In the province of Cashmere alone, it is computed that 
30,000 of these beautiful fabrics are manufactured every year. They are in universal demand over the East for their softness, 
durability, and the beauty of their colours. The Goats which yield the wool are chiefly derived from Thibet; Cashmere itself 
being too warm for the growth of the finest wool. The Goats of Thibet and the neighbouring countries have been introduced into 
Europe, in the hope of producing the fine wool which gives them so great a value in their native clime. In Franee especially, 
eager endeavours were made to establish the manufacture of shawls similar to those of Cashmere; but from the small quantity of 
wool yielded by the Goats, and the great manual labour required, the manufacture did not succeed as a branch of national industry. 
Attempts, too, were made to introduce these Goats, for the production of wool, into England, but with still less prospect of a 
favourable result, from the humidity of the climate. The native country of these Goats, it is to be observed, being vastly elevated 
is subject to extremes of temperature; and the growth of fine wool being a natural provision for keeping the animals warm, it would 
probably soon cease to be produced in more temperate climates. 
Stretching from the mountains of Thibet into the elevated steppes of the interior, northward to the Arctic Regions, eastward 
through Chinese Tartary to the ocean, and westward through the vast dominions of Russia to the confines of Europe, the Goats 
of the settled inhabitants and nomadic tribes are in prodigious numbers. These Goats are thickly covered with long coarse hair, 
usually of a dark hue. Southward, extending over the varied surface of Hindostan, the Goats assume a prodigious diversity 
of colour, aspect, and form. Sometimes they have horns, and sometimes they are destitute of horns; sometimes they have long 
pendulous ears; sometimes they have a short fur, like that of a fawn, and sometimes fine silky hair falling in glossy ringlets on 
each side of the dorsal line. The largest of the Goats of Hindostan are brought from Cabul, Thibet, and the high lands of 
Persia. 
In the Turkish dominions in Asia, the races of Goats are greatly varied, and often very beautiful. The Goat of Angora is 
the native of a district of Asia Minor, and is remarkable for its long: waving silky hair, which is spun into threads, of which a 
kind of camblet is made, esteemed beyond all other cloths of the East for its durability. The Goats of Angora have been brought 
to France, where they have become readily naturalized, and do not appear to be more tender than the common kinds. They have 
been carried likewise to Sweden, and other parts of Europe; but it may be believed that, after a time, they will lose that peculiar 
softness of the hair which characterises them in their native country. The soil of Angora is a clayey marl, which seems to have 
the property of communicating to the animals that live upon it a silky texture of the hair. The Dog and Cat of the same 
country are distinguished by the glossy softness of their fur, and are very beautiful. 
Of the other Goats of Asiatic Turkey, one is so peculiar, that it is plainly to be referred to an origin distinct from that of 
the Common Goats. It is frequently termed the Syrian Goat, though it is not confined to Syria, but extends, by the countries of 
the Euphrates, into Hindostan, into Arabia, and, with some slight change of characters, into Upper Egypt and Nubia. This 
kind of Goat was known to the ancients, who mention it by the name of the Syrian and sometimes of the Damascus Goat. It 
is usually without horns, has the face singularly convex, long pendulous ears, delicate limbs, and short hair, usually brown. The 
* Tour in the Upper Provinces of Hindostan. 
