42 DOGS. Chap. I. 



aquatic animals which belong to quite different orders have 

 webbed feet, there can be no doubt that this structure would 

 be serviceable to dogs that frequent the water. We may 

 confidently infer that no man ever selected his water-dogs 

 by the extent to which the skin was developed between their 

 toes ; but what he does, is to preserve and breed from those 

 individuals which hunt best in the water, or best retrieve 

 wounded game, and thus he unconsciously selects dogs with 

 feet slightly better webbed. The effects of use from the 

 frequent stretching apart of the toes will likewise aid in the 

 result. Man thus closely imitates Natural Selection. We 

 have an excellent illustration of this same process in North 

 America, where, according to Sir J. Richardson, 81 all the 

 wolves, foxes, and aboriginal domestic dogs have their feet 

 broader than in the corresponding species of the Old World, 

 and "well calculated for running on the snow." Now, in 

 these Arctic regions, the life or death of every animal will 

 often dejoend on its success in hunting over the snow when 

 soft ; and this will in part depend on the feet being broad ; 

 yet they must not be so broad as to interfere with the activity 

 of the animal when the ground is sticky, or with its power 

 of burrowing holes, or with other necessary habits of life. 



As changes in domestic breeds which take place so slowly 

 are not to be noticed at any one period, whether due to the 

 selection of individual variations or of differences resulting 

 from crosses, are most important in understanding the origin 

 of our domestic productions, and likewise in throwing indirect 

 light on the changes effected under nature, I will give in detail 

 such cases as I have been able to collect. Lawrence, 82 who 

 paid particular attention to the history of the foxhound, 

 writing in 1829, says that between eighty and ninety years 

 before " an entirely new foxhound was raised through the 

 breeder's art," the ears of the old southern hound being 

 reduced, the bone and bulk lightened, the waist increased in 

 length, and the stature somewhat added to. It is believed 

 that this was effected by a cross with a greyhound. With 



81 'Fauna Boreal i-Americana,' 82 ' The Horse in all his Varieties,' 



1829, p. 62. &c, 1829, pp. 230, 234. 



