56 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



have had its wild prototype. This latter view is extremely- 

 improbable : it allows nothing for variation ; it passes 

 over the almost monstrous character of some of the 

 breeds ; and it almost necessarily assumes that a large 

 number of species have become extinct since man domes- 

 ticated the dog ; whereas we plainly see that wild mem- 

 bers of the dog-family are extirpated by human agency 

 with much difficulty ; even so recently as 1710 the wolf 

 existed in so small an island as Ireland. 



p lg At a period between four and five thousand 



years ago, various breeds — viz., pariah dogs, 

 greyhounds, common hounds, mastiffs, house-dogs, lap- 

 dogs, and turnspits — existed, more or less closely resem- 

 bling our present breeds. But there is not sufficient evi- 

 dence that any of these ancient dogs belonged to the same 

 identical sub-varieties with our present dogs. As long as 

 man was believed to have existed on this earth only about 

 six thousand years, this fact of the great diversity of the 

 breeds at so early a period was an argument of much 

 weight that they had proceeded from several wild sources, 

 for there would not have been sufficient time for their di- 

 vergence and modification. But now that we know, from 

 the discovery of flint tools imbedded with the remains of 

 extinct animals, in districts which have since undergone 

 great geographical changes, that man has existed for an 

 incomparably longer period, and bearing in mind that 

 the most barbarous nations possess domestic dogs, the 

 argument from insufficient time falls away greatly in 

 value. 



~ ae From this resemblance of the half-domes- 



Page 26. 



ticated dogs in several countries to the wild 



species still living there — from the facility with which 



they can often be crossed together — from even half-tamed 



