of Europe for his conscientious work and profound knowledge, is as follows: "The magnificent example of the Angora goat, which the Museum of the Imperial Academy owes to M. Tchihatcheff, produces at first sight the general impression of a domestic goat, when attention is not directed to its thick and silky fleece, to its flat ears turned downwards, and its inconsiderable size. But it is precisely these traits which impress upon this animal a distinct seal, which give it the character of a peculiar race, whose origin is perhaps not the same as that of the domestic goat. The extremity of the snout, the cheeks, the nasal and frontal bone, as well as the ears, and lower part of the legs below the tarsal articulation, are covered with external hairs, which are shorter and thicker than those which cover the above-mentioned parts in other species of goats. The forehead has soft hairs of less length, less applied to the skin, and, in part, curled. The hair of the beard, which is pointed and of moderate dimensions, being six inches in length,' is stiffer than the hair of the rest of the body, but less so than that of the beard of the ordinary goat. The horns, of a grayish white tint, are longer than the head; at their lower part the interior marginal border turns inwards in such a manner that in this part they appear broad viewed in front, and narrow when seen exteriorly; at half their extension they direct themselves moderately backwards, and turn spirally outwards, so that their extremities, directed slightly upwards, are very much separated one from the other, and circumscribe a space gradually contracting itself. The whole of the neck, as well as the trunk, is covered with long hairs, which, particularly upon the neck and lateral parts of the body, are twisted in spirals having the appearance of loosened ringlets, it being observed at the same time that they unite themselves into rolled tufts, a disposition which is less marked in the anterior part of the neck. The hairs which exhibit the greatest length are situated above the forelegs, and are almost nine and one-half inches long. Those of the neck are a little shorter and are nine inches long, and those of the belly eight inches three lines. The length of the hair with which the lateral parts of the body, as well as the back, are covered, is only seven inches six lines, and that of the hair of the hind legs six inches to seven inches. Finally the slight stiff hair of the tail is about four inches in length. The color of the robe of the animal is a pure white, here and there slightly inclining to yellow. The hoofs, somewhat small in proportion, are, like the horns, of a grayish white tint. The hair is, without exception, long, soft, and fine; it is at once silky and greasy to the touch, and shows distinctly the brilliancy of silk." M. Brandt observes that the hairs corresponding most to external hair have only a third, or at most do not attain half, the thickness of the external hair of the common goat; and that the external hair of the wild and domestic goats is not only closer, stiffer, and more massive, but has a more considerable torsion and a less even surface; that is to say, All the dimensions given by M. Brandt are in German measurement. is equal to 1.0299 English feet. One German foot it is rougher and more scaly. He also remarked that "the walls of the hair of the Angora goat being thinner than those of the hair of the common goat, the substance contained in the fatty cellules oozes out more readily, which renders the hair of the Angora goat softer and more flexible, and gives it the lustre of silk." M. Brandt omits to mention that the long ringlets cover the hair, properly called, which is rough and short and lies sparingly upon the skin. The dimensions of the specimen examined by Mr. Brandt are given by him as follows:1 From the point of the snout to the root of the tail. Length of head... From the point of the snout to the eye. From the eye to the ear....... 5 1 25 2 1 The point of inquiry most strictly pertinent to the objects of this society, and one at the same time eminently practical, as indicating the laws which govern the reproduction of this animal, thus illustrating the relations of pure science with utilitarian ends, is the determination of the specific source of the Angora goat. The popular opinion as to the origin of this species is founded upon the authority of Cuvier, who mentions but three species of the genus Capra-Capra ægagrus, Capra ibex, Capra caucasica. He says: "Capra agagrus appears to be the stock of all the varieties of domestiɔ goat;" adding that they vary infinitely in size and color, in the length and fineness of the hair, in the size of the horns, and even in the number; the Angora goats of Cappadocia having the largest and most silky hair.2 The more recent researches of zoologists have greatly developed the knowledge of this genus. Instead of three only there are now recognized nine species of wild goats, which are divided into two groups based upon the form of the horns: 1. Group with horns flat in front, having a hori Capra ibex. 1 Bulletin de la Société Impériale d' Acclimatation, t. ii., pp. 316-18. zontal triangular section, and furnished with large Capra caucasica. transversal knots. Capra sibirica. Capra Walei. Capra Beden. 2. Group with horns compressed and carinated in (Capra Falconeri. S front. Capra ægagrus.1 The so-called goat of the Rocky mountains is removed by Professor Baird from the genus Capra, where it was formerly placed by him under the designation of Capra Americana, mountain goat. He says in the description of Apocerus montanus, contained in his Report of the Zoology of the Pacific Railroad Routes: "The figures and description of the skull and other bones of this species by Dr.Richardson show very clearly that the affinities are much more with the antelopes than with the goats or sheep. 1 Essai sur les Chèvres par M. Sacc. Bulletin supr. cit., t. iii., pp. 519, 561; t. iv., p. 3 Giebel. NOTE. THE CASHMERE GOAT.-The only goat besides the Angora which is strictly lanigerous is the Cashmere or Thibetian goat, which abounds in central Asia, but whose origin is still obscure; although it has, according to Brandt, affinities with the Angora race. The size of the Cashmere goat is quite large; the horns are flattened, straight and black, and slightly divergent at the extremities. The ears are large, flat, and pendent. The primary half, which is long, silky, and lustrous, is divided upon the back, and falls down upon the flanks in wavy masses. Beneath this hair there is developed in the autumn a short and exceedingly fine wool, from which the famous Cashmere shawls are fabricated. The enormous price of these shawls when extensively introduced into France at the commencement of the present century, as high as 10,000 or 12,000 francs, stimulated the French fabricants to emulate the Indian tissues. The first yarns from Cashmere wool were spun in 1815, and the high numbers were worth eight dollars per pound. The peculiar Indian texture called "Espouline" was perfectly achieved; and the success in this manufacture was hailed as the most brilliant triumph of the textile industry of France. Under the patronage of Monsieur, afterwards Charles X, in 1819 a great number of these goats were imported from Thibet, as many as 400 being introduced by one manufacturer, Baron Ternaux, and much enthusiasm was excited in their culture. Experience, however, proved that these goats yielded but little milk, and that the raw wool or down produced from an individual never exceeded 108 grams, usually much less, which it was very difficult to separate from the coarse hairs, "yarre," and yielded not more than 25 per cent. of material which could be woven. The manufacturer also discovered, although they had overcome all the mechanical difficulties of fabrication, that the raw material, expensive as it was, formed not more than one-tenth of the cost of a shawl; that the Indian weaver worked for one-fifth the wages of a French workman, and that the ladies of fashion would pay double price for an Indian shawl, inferior in color, design, and texture to the French fabric. The manufacture, which employed 4,000 workmen in 1834, began to decline in 1840; and, although an occasional fabric may still be made, the manufacture has now ceased as a regular industry. The demand for the wool ceasing, the Cashmere goats became absorbed in the common race, and there is at present but a single flock of pure blood in Europe; the one preserved is the remarkable collection of domestic amimals possessed by the King of Wurtemberg. There is reason to believe that the culture of the Cashmere goat will never be revived in Europe as a matter of profit, since a perfect substitute for the Cashmere down is found in the silky fleece of the new Mauchamps sheep, which is declared to be fully as brilliant and fully as soft as the product of the Cashmere goat, while it costs less as a raw material, and requires less manipulation to be transformed into yarn. (Sacc, sur les Chèvres. Bulletin supr. cit., t. iv., p. 48. Industrie des chales. Travaux de la Commission Français, p. 10. Bernoville, Industrie des laines Peignées, p. 161.) In fact, none of the more modern systematic writers place it in the genus Capra, or, indeed, in the ovine group. The mere general resemblance, externally, to a goat is a matter of little consequence; indeed, its body is much more like that of a merino sheep. The soft, silvery, under hairs are very different from those of a goat, as well as the jet black horns, which are without any ridges, and smooth and highly polished at the. extremities." The more recent investigations have shown that the animals referred to, and figured by G. Cuvier and F. Cuvier as types of the Capra ægagrus or Paseng, and said to occur both in Persia and on the Alps, were domestic goats which had become wild. Later researches have determined the true characteristic of Capra ægagrus, a species formed by Pallas from a cranium only, received by Gmelin from the mountains of the north of Persia, and have shown that naturalists had adopted this species as the source of the domestic goat without resting the assertion upon any proof. The comparison by M. Brandt in 1848 of a collection of skulls and horns obtained by M. Tchihatcheff in the Cappadocian Taurus, with the original cranium which served Pallas for the type of his species, has enabled that naturalist, for the first time, to demonstrate positively the derivation of our domestic goat from Capra ægagrus. M. Brandt asserts that it results from his labors that this species "is incontestably and exclusively the source of the domestic goat of Europe," and gives the following arguments in support of this assertion: 1. "The Capra ægagrus has all the exterior forms and all the proportions of the domestic goat." 2. "It resembles it very much in the general as well as local distribution of its colors." 3. "It approaches the domestic goat more than any other species in the configuration of its horns, a configuration which plays so important a part in the characteristics of the wild species." 4. "It presents the same agreement with the domestic goat in respect to the cranium. Finally, it is found in the mountains of the countries, especially Mesopotamia, inhabited by the people of antiquity, (the Israelites, Assyrians, &c.,) which have furnished the most ancient information respecting the raising of the goat." The establishment of the perfect identity of the domestic goat with a wild species is a negative argument of much force for the exclusion from the same source of an animal so widely differing as the Angora goat. A positive argument of equal weight is the recent observation that the Angora goat more,nearly resembles another wild species lately discovered. This species, the Capra Falconeri, is found upon all the mountains of Little Thibet, and upon the high mountains situated between the Indus, the Badukshan, and the Indo Kusch. It resembles greatly the domestic 1 Vol. vii, p. 672. * Considerations sur la Capra ægagrus de Pallas, souche de la Chèvre domestique, par. J. F. Brandt. Bulletin supr. cit., t. ii, p. 565. goat, from which it differs principally in its magnificent horns, which, near together at the base, are at first arched backwards, and then turn in a spiral inwards, and then over again outwards. They are strongly compressed, triangular and free from knots; their internal face, at first plane, is rounded higher up, whilst their external face is everywhere convex. Although there does not appear to be a development of fleece in this wild species corresponding to that of the Angora goat, M. Sace, professor in the faculty of sciences at Neuchatel, who has made a special study of the goats, does not hesitate to declare that "all the characters of this species seem to indicate that it is the source of the beautiful and precious Angora goat, whose horns are spirally turned like those of Falconer's goat." M. Brandt intimates that the domestication of other wild species than Capra ægagrus and perhaps the Capra Falconeri had produced the Angora goat. Geoffrey St. Hilaire, the highest authority upon the origin of domestic animals, refers to the opinions of M. Sace and M. Brandt without dissent, thus: "He (M. Brandt) is led especially to see in the Angora goat, produced, according to Pallas, by the cross of the sheep with the goat, an issue of the Capra Falconeri; this opinion is also admitted by our learned confrere, M. Sacc."1 The hypothesis that the Angora goat is descended from Falconer's goat is rendered probable by the diffusion of the former around the mountains of Thibet, where Falconer's goat abounds, and even beyond the central plains of Asia from Armenia to Chinese Tartary, where its wool is manufactured, or exported in a natural state by the port of Shanghae. Angora wool, or mohair, was exhibited at the London Exhibition of 1862 among the Russian products, as proceeding from the country of the Kalmucks of the Don, situated between the Black and Caspian seas. This species is thus seen to be diffused, although it may be sparingly, over the whole surface of Asia. That this goat is at present more abundant in the country about Angora in Asia Minor, near the habitat of the Capra ægagrus and distant many thousand miles from Thibet, may seem opposed to its derivation from the Thibetian species. The learned memoir of the Russian traveller, M. Tchihatcheff, establishes beyond question the comparatively recent introduction of the Angora goat into Asia Minor. He has shown that among the countries of classic antiquity there is no one which the ancient writers have mentioned more frequently and under more varied aspects than Asia Minor, because this country was not only one. of the foci of the Greek civilization, but also the native country of a great number of the most celebrated writers of antiquity, such as Herodotus, Homer, Strabo, Dion of Halicarnassus, Galen, &c. Hence in all that concerns the natural history of Asia Minor, the writings of these authors have an especial interest, while their silence has the value of a negative argument. Referring to the writings anterior to the classic period, we Sur les origines des animaux domestiques. Bulletin supr. cit., t. vi, p. 503. |