Goats can be kept with advantage in situations too rocky, or where the herbage is too scanty for oxen or ,sheep. They were formerly kept in greater numbers„in Britain than they now are. On some mouutains of ilrides and of Scotland; the goat is aim 3St as completely wild as if it were indigenous, and even to get within shot of it is difficult. It is capable, however, of the most perfect domestication, and becomes extremely attached and familiar. It is apt, indeed, to prove a troublesome pet, and makes use of its horns, although not angrily, much more freely than is at all agreeable.
The uses of the goat are numerous. The flesh is good; that of the kid, or young goat, is in most countries esteemed a delicacy. The milk is very rich and nutritious, more easy of digestion than that of the cow, and is often useful to consumptive patients. Some goats yield as much as four quarts of milk daily, although the aver age quantity is more nearly two. Both cheese and butter are made of goats' milk; they have a peculiar but not disagreeable flavor. Goats' milk is still very much used in Syria and other parts of the east, as it was in the days of the patriarchs. The skin of the goat was early used for clothing, and is now dressed as leather for many uses, particularly for making gloves and the finerkinds of shoes. The hair which may be advantageously clipped annually, is used for making ropes which are indestructible in water, and for making wigs for judges, barristers, and ecclesiastical dignitaries. For the latter purpose the hair of white goats is used. The use of the hair or wool of certain varieties of goat for making valuable fabrics is noticed in the articles ANGORA and CASHMERE GOAT. The horns are used for making knife-handles, etc., and the fat is said to be
superior to that of the ox for candles. In Holland, goats are employed in drawing children's coaches, to which as many as four are sometimes harnessed together, and they are sufficiently tractable and obedient to the rein.
The goat generally produces two young ones at a time. A hybrid between the goat and the sheep has been produced, and it has been described as fertile, but there is no evidence of fertility except in connection with one of the parent races.
The origin of the domestic goat is with greatest probability traced to the AEGAGRUS (C. aegayrus), which many naturalists confidently identify with it, and which is found on Caucasus and on many of the mountains of Asia. It is called paseng in Persia. Its legs are longer than those of the domestic goat; its horns are very .large, larger in proportion than those of any other known.truminant.—Another. wild specit9' is the JEMLAH GOAT (C. Jemlaica), which inhabits the district of Jemlah, between the sources of the Sargew and the Sampoo, the most elevated range of central Asia; very similar to which, if really distinct, is the JAIIRAL (C. jahral) of Nepal. These, however, have no true beard, although they otherwise abound in long hair. Other species or varieties of goat, of which (q.v.) is one, are associated under the name IBEX (q.v.). —All the species are natives of the old world.