Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/64

 56 GOA Africa, advancing southward after the summer rains to the Orange river, south of which only the common and first named species ranges. Great numbers are killed every year by the Cape colonists, but their annual visitations still continue; the flesh is considered excellent. GOA. I. A Portuguese colony in India, on the W coast, between lat. 14 54' and 15 45' N., and Ion. 78 45' and 74 26' E., bounded N. by Sawuntwarree, E. by N. Canara, and W. and S. by the Indian ocean ; pop. about 41 8,000. With the exception of Damaun and Diu, it is the only Portuguese possession in India. It is well watered and fertile, producing rice, pepper, co- coanuts, betel nuts, and salt. The inhabitants, two thirds of whom are Roman Catholics, are chiefly descendants of Europeans by native women. II. Old Got, a city of the above named colony, and formerly capital of the Portuguese possessions in India, on an island separated from the mainland by the river Mandova, 250 m. 8. 8. E. of Bombay; pop. about 4,000. The houses are built of stone in the European the streets are regular, and the public buildings far surpass everything else erected by Europeans in India, but are falling to de- cay, and the ruins of the ancient edifices have been used as quarries for building materials in the new town. During the 16th century it was one of the most flourishing European set- tlements in the East ; its walls described a cir- cuit of 6 m., and enclosed a population of 150,- 000 Christians and 50,000 Mohammedans ; but the site is unhealthy, and was abandoned early in the 18th century. St. Francis Xavier was l>uriod there, March 15, 1554; but his remains, with his magnificent tomb, covered with sculptures representing passages in his life, have been removed to the new town. Old Goa is now nearly deserted ; but some pains are taken to keep the ancient churches and public buildings in repair. III. New Goa, Pan- Jim, or PangaiM, situated on the same island, 5 m. nearer to the sea than the old town, on a fine bay 8. of a headland called Algoada point, with two lighthouses, is a fortified place, ati'l since 1768 the Portuguese capital in the East; pop. about 24,000. It is the residence of the governor and principal Portuguese in- habitant-*, and the seat of an archbishop. The principal buildings are the cathedral, custom house, and the palaces of the archbishop and the governor. The trade, once the most im- portant of any place in India, is now trifling, and is limited to the mother country and the niese settlements on the coast of China and Africa. The revenue of the colony is about 1600,000 annually. Goa was taken from the Hindoos by the Mohammedan sovereign of the Deccan in 1469. In 1510 it was captured by 'icse, who made it the capital of -ts in India; and it has ever since remained in their hands except during the pe- riod from 1807 to 1815, when it was held by itish. In no part of the world was the inquisition more vigorously maintained than in GOAT Goa. A mutiny of the native troops took place here in November, 1871. GOALPARA, or N. E. Rnngpoor, a district of Bengal, British India, bounded N. by the na- tive state of Bootan, E. by the district of Cam- roop, S. by Mymunsing and the territory of the Garrow tribes, and W. by Rungpoor and Cooch Behar ; area, 4,433 sq. m. ; pop. in 1872, 442,761. It produces cotton, tobacco, sugar, and mustard. Though belonging properly to Bengal, of which it formed a part on the ac- quisition of that territory by the British in 1765, it is often regarded as a district of As- sam, with which country it is naturally con- nected by similarity of climate, soil, &c. The town of the same name, on the Brahmapootra, 280 m. N. E. of Calcutta, is the chief trading place of the region. GOAT (capra, Linn.), a hollow-horned rumi- nant, of the subfamily ovince, which also con- tains the sheep. The genus is characterized by a convex forehead, nose for the most part straight in its upper outline, and the absence of lachrymal sinuses and secreting glands be- tween the hoofs ; the horns, present in both sexes, but larger and more angular in the males, are of a dull yellowish brown color, compress- ed and nodose, with a sharp edge behind and before, curving backward, but not completing a circle, and the tips never coming forward ; their curve, unlike those of the sheep, forma part of a circle, whose diameter is much longer than the head ; their osseous nucleus is porous or cellular, communicating with the frontal sinuses ; the chin is bearded, the tail very short and naked below, the hoofs as high on the in- ner as on the outer side, and the mammas, gen- erally two, forming an udder ; the nose is cov- ered with hair, except a narrow naked space between the nostrils; the limbs are strong, with a callosity on the carpus. The dental for- mula is: incisors $; canines none; molars |z|; in all 32 teeth. The hair is never very coarse, and sometimes remarkably fine, with a woolly down underneath. The period of gestation is five months, and the number of young general- ly two ; the female is capable of propagating at seven months, and the male at a year old ; the age of the goat may be extended to 15 years, though they are generally old at 6. The males emit a powerful odor, and are libidinous and pugnacious. They ascend giddy heights, and spring with great precision from rock to rock where there seems hardly a possibility of their obtaining a foothold ; their sight and smell are acute. The hunting of the wild species is both difficult and dangerous. The goats include the ibex of Europe, Asia, and Africa (see IBEX) ; the wild agagrus, and the Jemlah goat or the jharal. There is no goat indigenous to Amer- ica, the so-called Rocky mountain goat being in reality an antelope. The common wild goat (<?. [hircut] cegagrus, Pallas) inhabits the moun- tains of the Caucasus, Asia Minor, and Persia, and according to some the European Alps. It is higher on the legs than the domestic goat,