THE LAWS OF VARIABILITY. 57 



animals being so much valued by savages — and from the 

 other circumstances previously remarked on which favor 

 their domestication, it is highly probable that the domes- 

 tic dogs of the world are descended from two well-defined 

 species of wolf (viz., C. lupus and C. latra?is), and from 

 two or three other doubtful species (namely, the Euro- 

 pean, Indian, and North African wolves) ; from at least 

 one or two South American canine species ; from several 

 races or species of jackal ; and perhaps from one or more 

 extinct species. 



ORIGIN OF THE HORSE. 



Animals and The history of the horse is lost in antiquity. 

 Domestica- Remains of this animal in a domesticated con- 

 tion, vol. i, dition have been found in the Swiss lake-dwell- 

 ings, belonging to the Neolithic period. At 

 the present time the number of breeds is great, as may 

 be seen by consulting any treatise on the horse. Looking 

 only to the native ponies of Great Britain, those of the 

 Shetland Isles, Wales, the New Forest, and Devonshire 

 are distinguishable ; and so it is, among other instances, 

 with each separate island in the great Malay Archipelago. 

 Some of the breeds present great differences in size, shape 

 of ears, length of mane, proportions of the body, form of 

 the withers and hind-quarters, and especially in the head. 

 Compare the race-horse, dray-horse, and a Shetland pony 

 in size, configuration, and disposition ; and see how much 

 greater the difference is than between the seven or eight 

 other living species of the genus Equus. 



Pa» c 52 Horses have often been observed, accord- 



ing to M. Gaudry, to possess a trapezium and 

 rudiment of a fifth metacarpal bone, so that "one sees 

 4 



