20 DOGS. Chap. I. 



are considered the best trainers of dogs, and possess a large 

 breed which they barter at a high price with othci 

 tribes. 11 



The main argument in favour of the several breeds of the 

 dog being the descendants of distinct wild stocks, is their 

 resemblance in various countries to distinct species still 

 existing there. It must, however, be admitted that the com- 

 parison between the wild and domesticated animal has been 

 made but in few cases with sufficient exactness. Before 

 entering on details, it will be well to show that there is no 

 a priori difficulty in the belief that several canine species 

 have been domesticated. Members of the dog family in- 

 habit nearly the whole world; and several species agree 

 pretty closely in habits and structure with our several 

 domesticated dogs. Mr. Galton has shown 12 how fond 

 savages are of keeping and taming animals of all kinds. 

 Social animals are the most easily subjugated by man, 

 and several species of Canidas hunt in packs. It deserves 

 notice, as bearing on other animals as well as on the 

 dog, that at an extremely ancient period, when man first 

 entered any country, the animals living there w^ould have 

 felt no instinctive or inherited fear of him, and would conse 

 quently have been tamed far more easily than at present 

 For instance, when the Falkland Islands were first visited by 

 man, the large wolf-like dog (Cams antarcticus) fearlessly 

 came to meet Byron's sailors, who, mistaking this ignorant 

 curiosity for ferocity, ran into the water to avoid them : even 

 recently a man, by holding a piece of meat in one hand and a 

 knife in the other, could sometimes stick them at night. On 

 an island in the Sea of Aral, when first discovered by 

 Butakofif, the saigak antelopes, which are " generally very 

 timid and watchful, did not fly from us, but on the contrary 

 looked at us with a sort of curiosity." So, again, on the 

 shores of the Mauritius, the manatee was not at first in the 

 least afraid of man, and thus it has been in several quarters 

 of the world with seals and the morse. I have elsewhere 



11 Sir R. Schomburgk has given me xiii., 1843, p. 65. 

 information on this head. See also 12 ' Domestication of Animals :' 



'Journal of R. Geograph. Soc.' vol. Ethnological Soc, Dec. 22nd, 1863. 



