426 THE PIGS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



was in those days half covered with wood, in which oak pre- 

 dominated, and it is probable that the acorns formed the 

 principal food on which the pigs for winter use were fed, and 

 after they were consumed the slaughtering and curing for 

 winter purposes would commence. And it may be here remarked 

 that the pig is the only animal that can safely consume an un- 

 limited quantity of this somewhat astringent food, which has 

 proved the source of much loss in cattle and sheep. 



The pig has been associated with man from very early days, 

 and it is impossible to arrive at anything definite as to the period 

 of his first subjection. He is the only section of the many-toed 

 division of pachydermatous mammalia that has been thus 

 reclaimed; for though his ally the elephant has been made 

 useful in individual cases the race continues wild, and it is said 

 that, when subjected to captivity, fertility almost ceases. In our 

 own, and in most civilised countries, the wild boar has long 

 since completely given place to the cultivated animal ; in Africa 

 and India these animals still form exciting objects of the chase. 

 "Whilst the origin of some of our domestic animals is involved in 

 obscurity, so greatly have they become altered by cultivation, 

 the hog retains so much of his original character that we have 

 no difficulty in tracing the resemblance even in the varieties that 

 have been most extensively altered. 



According to high geological authority, the boar was coeval 

 with extinct species of the mastodon anddinotherium, and hence 

 must be regarded as the most ancient of our domesticated 

 animals. Much discussion has ensued as to whether the diverse 

 types we see in different parts have sprung from one or more 

 sources. We consider the effect of varying conditions quite 

 sufficient to account for even greater differences. Take, for 

 illustration, one feature which is a very characteristic one, viz., 

 the snout. The use of this organ, in addition to assisting in 

 respiration and containing the smelling apparatus, is to enable 

 the animal to uproot the soil in search for food ; therefore its 

 development would depend on the necessity for such work. The 

 British swine, feeding so largely upon acorns and beech masts, 

 has not the same necessity for routing as the African pig, hence 

 we find the snout of the latter much more extended. Then, 

 again, in the domestic pig, the Irish " rint-payer " of fifty years 



