STDI> BOOK. 51 



influences to which the native breed of that country is 

 exposed, in the course of some generations he will 

 present the leading characters of the Arabian horse. 

 On the contrary, if the race thus changed be conveyed 

 again to England, in the course of several generations 

 it will gradually acquire the properties it formerly 

 possessed. This fact would seem to prove that the 

 Arabian horse cannot exist in perfection in any of the 

 northern or western countries of Europe ; and that the 

 humidity of the climate, and the influence indirectly 

 arising from that cause, are the principal reasons of 

 this change. Similar instances might be given in 

 reference to the changes which have been observed in 

 the sheep, the goat, and the hog. The former, when 

 subjected to the climate of the West Indies, from 

 Thibet, Spain, or Vermont, where their fleeces are 

 fine, delicate, and soft, after a few years, are entirely 

 covered with rough, coarse hair, resembling that of 

 the goat 



Breeding should be conducted with some definite 

 object in view. There is no greater error than the 



