CASHMERE GOAT, a variety of the common goat, remarkable for its very long, fine, and silky hair, from which the highly valued Cashmere shawls are made. It is not so much in Cashmere that this variety of goat is to be found, as in Thibet, from which the finest goat-hair is imported into Cashmere, to be there manufactured into shawls. The hair is even longer than that of the Angora goat, and not, like it, curled into ringlets, but straight. It is about 18 in. long. A single goat does not yield more than three ounces, and the fleeces of ten goats are requisite for the manufacture of a shawl a yard and a half square. The hair is spun by women, and dyed after it is spun. It is said that 16,000 looms are kept in constant employment in Cashmere, producing annually about 30,000 shawls. The shawls are woven iu rudely constructed looms, a pair of shawls sometimes occupying three or four men a whole year in weaving. C. shawls, of the finest quality are sold in London at from £100 to £400 each. Plain shawls are simply woven in the loom, but those with variegated patterns are worked with wooden needles, a separate needle being used for each color. These shawls are in the highest request in
India; but the hair of several other breeds of goat inferior to that of Thibet is employed for the manufacture of shawls called by the same name. Imitations of these are manu factured in France rather extensively, some from the Thibet wool entirely, and others of a mixture of this with silk and cotton. It is said that 24 lbs. of the best Thibetan goat-hair sell in Cashmere for 20 rupees, or £10 sterling.
Attempts have been made to introduce the C. G. into Europe. Baron Alstrmmer attempted, in the end of last century, to naturalize it in Sweden; and a very spirited attempt to introduce it into Britain has recently been made by Mr. Towers. A mixed race, produced by crossing the C.G. and the Angora goat, has been found to possess most valuable qualities, the hair being long, fine, and more abundant than in any of the parent breeds.—The male of the C. G. has very large, flattened, wavy horns.