Pack horses and mules have been used to transport ores, coal and quarried
products up to the introduction of the railways. This is well documented
in "Seen On The Packhorse Tracks" by Titus Thornber.
It is less well known that goats were (and still are) widely used as pack
animals. Goats were used to carry bricks for the building of the Great Wall of
China, and still are being used to carry firewood and fodder in Africa and the
Middle East.
In North America goats are being used to carry equipment into the
mountains,and there is a growing business of Packgoat Trecking. (See
Packgoat on the internet.)
There are on Dartmoor elevated trackways similar to the ones described by
Thornber in the Pennines. Although these may have been used by mules or
packhorses, there are rocky situations which only a goat could negotiate.
Goats were one of the first animals to be domesticated and would have been
useful for low volume transport.
These raised tracks would prevent pack animals from becoming bogged
down in the wet peat and they definately link the Bronze Age settlements with
the sources of near surface tin ores.
It is said that a goat can carry 25% of its own body weight which would be
an economical load of valuable cassiterite.
I cannot find any references to the use of goats in mining operations either
prehistorically or recently. Can anyone suggest a source of informatin that
would help to confirm that goats were used to transport ores at any time in
history or prehistory and at any location in the world?
Best wishes Roger B. Hutchins.
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