Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses. 251 



show I asked the price of a very beautiful female Ass only one 

 year old; the owner said that he could have 1000 dollars for 

 her, but that he had refused that sum. For a three-year-old 

 male, shown during the exhibition, 3000 dollars (more than 

 ,£600) were refused. The fact is that mule-breeding is so lucra- 

 tive, that there is no price which a very large donkey will not 

 command." 



With reference to the current statement that the Ass nowhere 

 thrives in a cold climate, it should be remembered that these 

 animals are numerous in Pekin ; and that some at least of the 

 Chinese donkeys are fine animals, may be inferred from Dr. 

 Hooker's remark about the Tibetan mules, which he says are 

 often as fine as the Spanish. He " rode one, which had per- 

 formed a journey from Choombi to Lhassa in fifteen days with 

 a man and load." Nevertheless, as a general rule and irrespec- 

 tive of recent introductions, the finest Asses chiefly inhabit Arabia 

 and the Levantine countries, and the most degenerate are the 

 puny cat-hammed Guddhas of India generally. As Col. Sykes 

 remarks, some of these are scarcely larger than a fine Newfound- 

 land dog ; but on what ground Col. C. H. Smith supposed this 

 to be a wild race inhabiting the Dukhun * it is difficult to ima- 

 gine. There are small Asses also in Persia, as about Ispahan, 

 which Chardin (as we have seen) denominated the race proper 

 to the country, while he mentions that many of the large kind 

 are imported into Persia from Arabia. It is curious that Aris- 

 totle states that in his time there were no Asses in Pontus, 

 Syria, or in the country of the Celts (meaning modern Germany 

 and France), Syria being now so celebrated for the excellence of 

 its breed of them. For many ages previously they are known 

 to have existed in Egypt and Arabia. In short, there seems to 

 be no evidence whatever to bear out the current notion that the 

 domestic Ass originated in northern Asia, but, on the contrary, 

 every reason to infer that it originated in the region where the 

 particular species is still found wild, and where also the finest 

 and least-altered of the domestic races prevail to this day ; and 

 that the fact should not have been long ago established is surely 

 somewhat remarkable. 



A writer on this animal observes, justly enough, that "the 

 Ass is, properly speaking, a mountain species : his hoofs are long 

 and furnished with extremely sharp rims, leaving a hollow in 

 the centre, by which means he is enabled to tread with more 

 security on the steep and slippery sides of precipices. The hoof 

 of the Horse, on the contrary, is round and nearly flat under- 

 neath ; and we accordingly find that he is more serviceable in 



* Nat. Libr. " Mammalia," vol. xii. p. 306. 



17* 



