The Angora goat, although originally confined to a limited district, has now been transported to and reared successfully in many other countries. The fleece is locally called "tiftek." After the goats have completed their second year, they are clipped annually in April or May, and yield progressively until they attain full growth, from one to three pounds. The process is perfectly simple, the fleece being of pretty uniform quality, and, unlike the Thibet or Cashmere goats, which have a downy covering on the pelt, with long coarse hairs at the top, the separation of which is both tedious and expensive, the Angora goat's wool is packed and shipped as it comes from the animal.

A serious drawback to the development of the trade in goats' hair is the determined dishonesty of the native graziers and dealers, who persist in drenching the fleeces with water, and mixing in all sorts of rubbish in order to increase the weight, and so realize an extra profit, although by so doing they destroy the lustre of the hair, which is its principal recommendation to spinners, as it enables them to use it as a substitute for silk. The English agents in Angora have made repeated efforts to have the practice forbidden, and have even induced the Central Government to interfere to prohibit it, but the active opposition or passive resistance of the local authorities have hitherto frustrated their wishes.

The Kirghiz of Kokan keep large flocks of goats, which in character are not unlike those of Thibet, with reddish grey hair of great length, under which is a beautiful white hair of the finest description, from which the inhabitants of Urutupa manufacture shawls and scarfs as fine and as highly prized as those of Cashmere.

Fine goats' hair is produced in the Kirghiz steppes, and sells in Khiva and Bokhara at 28s. the cwt. Thirty years ago about 80 quantity of goats' hair, used Now only about 12 tons of Orenburg frontier. Russia

tons of goats' down, and about half that
to be annually shipped from Russia.
it are imported annually across the

STATISTICS OF ANGORA GOATS.

53

exports the great mass to Europe; but a portion of it is manufactured in Eastern Russia into socks, gloves, girdles, and shawls of great variety and surprising brightness.

The Angora goat is now successfully reared in South Africa, South Australia, Victoria, and other of the Australian colonies. There are nearly 1,000,000 in the Cape Colony, where they

were only introduced about ten or twelve years ago. As early as 1848 they were imported into South Carolina, and have since spread over many of the States of the Union, the original stock being surpassed in beauty and amount of hair or wool produced, which is partly due to the extreme care taken in breeding, and partly to the colder winters on the North American Continent, which tends to increase the woolly covering of quadrupeds.

54

THE SHAWL-WOOL GOAT.

Since 1870 a large number of pure bloods have been imported into California, and they are now quite common throughout the States and territories of the Pacific, where their number is estimated at about two millions, and it is doubling every year. They thrive much better in the Pacific States than in the Northern and Southern States. These animals are very prolific, and if well kept have kids when only one year old. It is also said that the flesh of the Angora goat is far superior to that of the common goat, and even better than mutton, veal, or venison, according to the testimony of some who have lived on it in California.

The southern slopes of the Himalaya Mountains afford the most congenial locality for the famous shawl-wool goat. The northern face of these mountains is as remarkable for its dryness as the southern is for its moisture; the cold is excessive, and the animals which are pastured there are covered with shaggy hair, or with long wool and a fine down. Few are aware of the tedious. protracted labour attending the manufacture of a fine Cashmere shawl. When the hairs have been separated, the residue is carefully washed in rice-water and hand-spun by women, who do not earn more than equal to about half-a-crown per month. There necessarily is, in the manufacture of these shawls, a great division of labour. One artizan designs the pattern, another determines the quantity and quality of the thread required, while a third arranges the warp and woof. Three weavers are usually employed on a shawl, of only an ordinary pattern, for three months; but a pair of rich ones not unfrequently occupies a shop, or a family, for a year and a half. They are dyed in the yarn, and carefully washed after the weaving is completed. The Cashmerian dyers of eminence profess to produce sixty-four tints, some by extracting colours from European woollens. The embroidered borders of the finest shawls are invariably made separate, and afterwards. skilfully sewed on to the main piece. The immense labour required to produce a first-rate Cashmere shawl, will account for the fact, that a shawl will sometimes cost £600 or £700 before it passes

PASHUM OR KOORK.

the rocky portals of the valley of Cashmere.

55

These shawls

always form part of the presents made to distinguished persons who visit the courts of Eastern princes.

The Pashum, or shawl wool, properly so called, is a downy substance found next the skin and below the thick hair of the Thibetan goat. It is of three colours, white, drab, and dark lavender. The best kind is produced in the semi-Chinese province of Turfan Kechar, and exported via Yarkand to Cashmere. All the finest shawls are made of this wool; but as the Maharajah of Cashmere keeps a strict monopoly of the article, the Punjab shawl weavers cannot procure it, and have to be content with an inferior kind of pashum, produced at Chathan, and exported via Leh to Umritsur, Nurpur, Loodianah, Jelapur, and other shawlproducing towns of the Punjab. The price of white pashum in Cashmere is, for uncleaned, 3s. to 4s. per lb. ; cleaned, 6s. to 75. ; of the Tusha, or dark lavender wool, 25. to 3s. per lb., uncleaned; and 5s. to 7s. cleaned.

The shawls of Kerman, in Persia, are not much inferior to those of Cashmere. They are woven by hand, similarly to the carpets. The material called "koork," of which the shawls are made, is the under wool of the white goat, numerous flocks of which animal are in the neighbourhood. These flocks migrate annually, according to the season. Major Smith tells us that he made inquiries at Kerman why the "koork" producing goats were only to be found in that neighbourhood, and was informed that in that district the rapid descent from the high plateau of Persia to the plains near the sea, afforded the means of keeping the flocks throughout the year in an almost even teinperature and in abundant pastures, with a much shorter distance between the summer and winter quarters than in other parts of Persia, and that such an even climate, without long distances to traverse in the course of migration, was necessary to the delicate constitution of the animal, or rather to the softness of its wool. The whole of the "koork" is not made use of in the looms of Kerman, a large

56

THE COMMON GOAT.

quantity being annually exported to Umritsur, in Upper India, where it is manufactured into false Cashmere shawls.

THE COMMON GOAT AND ITS COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS.Being the natural inhabitant of mountainous regions, and injurious to trees and shrubs, it is in wild, rocky countries that the goat is mostly reared. In Europe, the goat is chiefly found in Spain, which has about 4,500,000; Portugal and Austria 1,000,000 each; Germany nearly 1,700,000; France 1,800,000; and Russia 1,400,000, besides some in Asia. The United Kingdom has about 1,000,000; Sweden and Norway 500,000, and smaller numbers are found in Italy and Switzerland. Asia maintains a large number, for in the Peninsula of India alone there are about 6,000,000.

Statistics of GOATS in various countries according to the latest

The wool-bearing goats of Eastern Asia and their products have been already alluded to, but it may be mentioned here that there are about 1000 pure Angoras in Cordova, South America, introduced from the Cape Colony in 1864, and 2000 to 3000 of various crosses, besides a million or more of native goats, which can be bought there for about 3s. each.

Between Kangra and Ladakh, goats and sheep are much used