FOSSIL WOOD. 311 



since the end of hunting seems to be, that the chase 

 pursued should be eaten. Dogs, again, will not de- 

 vour the more rancid water-fowls ; nor indeed the 

 bones of any wild-fowls ; nor will they touch the fetid 

 bodies of birds that feed on offal and garbage ; and 

 indeed there may be somewhat of providential in- 

 stinct in this circumstance of dislike ; for vultures *, 

 and kites, and ravens, and crows, &c., were intended 

 to be messmates with dogs f over their carrion ; and 

 seem to be appointed by Nature as fellow- scavengers, 

 to remove all cadaverous nuisances from the face of 

 the earth J. 



LETTER CUT. 



TO THE SAME. 



THE fossil wood buried in the bogs of Wolmer 

 Forest, is not yet all exhausted ; for the peat- cutters 

 now and then stumble upon a log. I have just seen 

 a piece which was sent by a labourer of Oakhanger 

 to a carpenter of this village : this was the butt- end 

 of a small oak, about five feet long, and about five 

 inches in diameter. It had apparently been severed 



* Hasselquist, in his Travels to the Levant, observes, that the 

 dogs and vultures at Grand Cairo maintain such a friendly 

 intercourse, as to bring up their young together in the same 

 place. 



f The Chinese word for a dog, to a European ear, sounds 

 like quihloh. 



J See some very interesting observations on the natural his- 

 tory and origin of our domestic race of dogs, in the fifth number 

 of the Journal of Agriculture, by Mr. J. Wilson. The origin of 

 all our domestic breeds is there traced to the wolf and jackal ; 

 allowing, of course, the native dogs of Africa and America, 

 with the New Holland Dingo, to be distinct species. W. J. 



