Hounds, S§ 



al! this variety we behold in them. Is either 

 the natural produ(5t of the climate, or the 

 accidental effed: of foil, food, or fituation, 

 or very frequently the ilTue of human care, 

 curiofity, or caprice. Every Huntfman 

 knows that a vaft alteration may be made in 

 his breed, as to tongue, heels, or colour, 

 by induftricufly improving the fame blood 

 for twenty or thirty years ; and what nature 

 can do, (which wifely tends jto render every 

 kind of creature fit for the pountry where 

 it is to inhabiit, or be employed,) is ma- 

 nifeft by this : that a couple of right 

 Southern Hounds, removed to the Nprth, 

 and fuffered to propagate, without art or 

 mixture, in a hilly mountainous country, 

 where the air is light and thin, will, by fen- 

 iible degrees, decline and degenerate into 

 lighter bodies, and fliriller voices, if not 

 rougher coats. The like alterations may 

 be obferved in the breeds of fl^eep, horfes, 

 and other cattle, and indeed in every other 

 fpecies fubjed to the art and inrerefl: of man, 

 and employed to generate at his choice and 

 humour. Even in thofe animals that are 

 feckoned ,am.ong the fera natiira, every 

 G 3 traveller 



