to the country immediately surrounding this vilayet. Some
have set a date over two thousand years ago, claiming that the Angora
goat was introduced into Asia Minor at that time, but the only authentic
history is that given by Tournefort, a French naturalist, employed by
his government, who explored Asia Minor about two hundred and fifty
years ago, and who described and pictured the Angora goat about as he
appears to-day and by Evliya Effendi, a Turk, who wrote in 1550 of the
goats, and by a few other writers. That they have not changed more is
due to the fact that the Turk is quite content as he is, and he has no
ambition to breed a different goat from what he has had for at least the
past three centuries.

ASIA MINOR.

Before we consider the migrations of the Angora goat, we will
investigate the physical conditions of their native province. The
interior of Asia Minor, or the Angora goat country, is from one to four
thousand feet above the sea level. Low, rolling hills and broad plains,
treeless and almost waterless; dry, hot and desolate in the summer, and
covered with more or less snow in the winter, form the habitat of the
Angora. A small fine fibered sage brush is the principal diet of the
goat, both summer and winter, but in the spring this diet is
supplemented with weeds and some grass, and in the summer some of the
goats are driven to the higher mountains, where there are some scrub
pines and other varieties of brush. There is no winter feeding. The
goats make their own living on the tops of the sage brush, which
protrude through the snow.

The indolent Turks do make some provision for the shelter of themselves
and the goats in the winter. If a cave can be found it is divided so
that the goats share the quarters with the humans. Sometimes an adobe
house is so arranged that the goats and other livestock occupy the lower
part of the house and the natives the upper part, or if there be but one
floor, a low fence is run across to keep the livestock out of the living
quarters. Great greyish-white wolfish looking dogs, wearing formidable
collars of sharpened spikes go with the shepherds during the day and
watch the flocks during the night. They are used as a means of
protection from thieves, and not as an aid in herding. The flocks camp
around the cave or hut, and are not confined in corrals. Fences are
almost unknown in the Angora country. There are probably four or five
million Angora goats in Asia Minor. Much