On Indian Dogs, 137 



ment in Pennfylvania early in the 17th centurv. But a little 

 confideratioa has crunpclied me to relinquifli this idea: for it 

 is certain that the Indians were in poUeflion of this breed of 

 dogs long before the arrival of the Swedes in America. 



We have already leen that the Spaniards found domefti- 

 cated dogs among the Indians of Florida before the middle 

 of the i6th century, almofl: one hundred years earlier than 

 the Swedifli fettlement in Pennfylvania. It is not, indeed, 

 certain that theie dogs were of the half-wolf breed ; but it 

 is probable that they were. In the year 1585 the celebrated 

 navigator captain John Davis obferved dogs " with pricked 

 ears" in the lands about Hudfon's Bay*. "^ It is highly pro- 

 bable that thefe dogs were a variety of the half- wolf breed of 

 the Indians. Captain John Smith, who arrived in Virginia 

 in [607, a few years before the Swedifli fettlement, expfefsly 

 mentions the affinity of the Indian dogs in that country to 

 wolves. I might eafily adduce other inftances. Thefe'are 

 fufficient for my purj)ole. They evidently (how that the In- 

 dian dog exilled in America before the Swedes planted their 

 firft colony in Pennfvlvania : confequently, we have no diffi- 

 culty in anfwering Mr. Bartram's firll quellion, which I liAve 

 dated. 



Still, however, Kalm's obfervalion is interefting. It leads 

 lis to fufpcft that the dog of the Indians is common to North 

 America and to the northern parts of Europe. Neither fliould 

 this circumftance, in whatever light we inay view the original 

 ot the Indian dog, excite our liirprife. If, as very manv of 

 the traders and others fiippofe, this dog is the produce of the 

 wolf and the common fox, his parents exiilcd in the old as 

 well as in the new world. He may have been formed in 

 America by the union of thefe two animals ; or he may have 

 migrated into America from Europe along with many other 

 animals, which, it is highly probable, owe their original to 

 that portion of the globe, or to Afia. For that America has 

 received fome of its animals (befide its human inhabitants) 

 from Afia and from Europe, I have very little doubt t- 



I conje6ture it will be found that the dog of the Green- 

 landers, mentioned by C'rantz J and other writers, is only a 

 variety of the Indian dog. And, perhaps, the dogs of ihe 

 Kalmuc Tarurs, which are fiud to have a great refemblanec 



• Forftcr. 



+ Sec New Vic" s &c. Prtliminary Diftourfe, p. 101, 102. 



+ The Hiftory nf Greenland, &c. vol. i. p. 74. En^lifh Tranfl. tion, 

 T,(/ii'l(jn 17C7. " The rfiTcnhindcrs (lays .his author) have no Mnic 

 h<-Al\> bin doj;s (if a middle (izc, uhicli loii!;. moie llitc wolves than d<ij;s. 

 Moll of rheni are white, yet there are fome with thick black hair: tllcy 

 <lc)i't bark, but grow! and howl Co much the more.'' 



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