Native American, or Indian Dogs. 25 



V. Some animals are very easily brought into the 

 domesticated state. Others are domesticated with 

 great difficulty. Perhaps, there are some incapable 

 of domestication. If the Indian dog be the offspring 

 of the wolf and the fox, or any other animal, we ought 

 not, perhaps, to wonder, that he is still more an ani- 

 mal syhestre than the generality of the dogs of the 

 old world : for both the wolf and the fox are with 

 difficulty tamed. In this inquiry, we ought also to 

 remember, that the master of the Indian dog is a 

 savage. It may readily be conceived, that this cir- 

 cumstance will influence the genius of our animal. 

 Living in the woods, and too frequently badly treated 

 by his master, the dog must often leave the huts of 

 the Indians, and perhaps imbibe from his parents, in 

 the woods, a new tincture of their aspect, and their 

 manners. Even in our cultivated towns, how much 

 do the manners of the dogs seem to depend upon the 

 calling of their masters ! It is a fact, that the dogs 

 of our frontier-settlers have a much more savage as- 

 pect than the dogs (the same variety) in the villages 

 and populous towns. 



VI. In America there were found some kinds of 

 dogs, which were not less domesticated than the dogs 

 of the old world. Such were the Alco and the Itz- 

 cuintepotzotli, of which I have already given some 

 account. I think it very improbable, that these two 

 species or varieties were derived from the wolf. Nor 

 is it certain, that they were not a species of canis, 

 essentially distinct from those of the old world. In 

 whatever light we view them, they seem to oppose an 



VOL. I. PART II. D 



