142 



THE DOG TRIBE. 



pursue them with fury. Disgusting, filthy, ill- 

 smelling animals, they put up in case of 

 necessity with any kind of nourishment, even 

 with the excrements of other animals. They 

 follow travellers and caravans, and know very 

 well how to estimate the dangers that may 

 threaten them. The post-cars in Algiers 

 cause them no fear, as I have myself been 

 able to observe. A jackal which was quietly 

 observing us swiftly made off when the guide, 

 who had remained a little behind, drew his 

 revolver out of his pocket. 



Perhaps we have been too lavish of our 

 examples of Canida with round pupils. But 

 apart from the fact that, we are far from hav- 

 ing exhausted the number of known species, 

 since numerous other species are to be found 

 in all countries from which we have adduced 

 examples, a strong interest attaches to these 

 animals from the fact that among them the 

 stocks of our numerous races of domestic 

 dogs are to be sought. 



Several facts have to be considered in 

 determining the question so frequently dis- 

 cussed as to the origin of our domestic dogs, 

 the individual races of which differ much 

 more among themselves than the species of 

 wild dogs known to us. . These races, which 

 undoubtedly have been produced by selection 

 by man, would certainly be regarded partly 

 as species, partly even as forming distinct 

 genera, if they were met with in the wild 

 state. There is no organ in their body which 

 has not varied indefinitely through artificial 

 breeding, and there are only two common 

 characters which can be conceded to them 

 the round pupil and the bearing. The wild 

 species carry the tail low, almost dragging; 

 the domestic varieties carry it high, often 

 bent up towards the back, and in this case 

 mostly on the left side. This last character 

 is indeed the only one which was recognized 

 by Linnaeus as common to all domestic dogs. 

 -The modification of the races in the hands 

 of man cannot be denied. We have too 



many proofs of the fact to be able to doubt 

 it; and from the representations on the monu- 

 ments of ancient Egypt and the mummies 

 left behind by the Incas of Peru, down to the 

 present time, we can trace long series of 

 variations, the final goal of which is even yet 

 far from being reached, since the existing 

 races are still being constantly modified, per- 

 fected, and multiplied. 



Are these races derived from several 

 original wild stocks, or only from a single 

 one, which in the course of centuries has been 

 gradually modified in different directions, and 

 is no longer represented in the wild state? 

 That is a question which different people have 

 endeavoured to answer in different ways. 



We must, first of all, here call attention to 

 the fact, that domesticated dogs belonging to 

 different races have been found both in the 

 oldest deposits in which human remains of 

 any kind have been met with, and also by 

 European discoverers in countries into which 

 dogs could not have been introduced from 

 the lands of our ancient civilization. The 

 bone-caves, lake-dwellings, kitchen-middens, 

 and sepulchres of ancient tribes in all parts 

 of the world have yielded remains of domestic 

 dogs ; and these remains, as well as the 

 Egyptian frescoes, prove to us that the races 

 reared in different districts were from the 

 first different in form, size, and bearing. 



It is incontestable that domestic dogs have 

 never been found in districts in which wild 

 dogs with round pupils have not been found 

 also, and that it is easy to discover in the old 

 or little modified races the marks of these 

 wild species. Where man did not experience 

 the necessity for modifying the wild species 

 greatly, the races which he tamed for his use 

 resemble their wild kindred so much that one 

 can distinguish them only by the bark. The 

 dogs of the Eskimo differ in no respect from 

 the wolves of Labrador, nor those of the 

 Red-skins of the Rocky Mountains from the 

 coyote. No difference could be pointed out 

 between the skull of a dog of the lake-dwell- 



