96 INTRODUCTION. 



tion.* Writers more imbued with the spirit of 

 system than with the phenomena they have to 

 investigate and classify, may not assent to the pro- 

 bability of this surmise ; but unti] they are better 

 prepared with facts, the question must remain un- 

 determined. It may be added, that whilst natu- 

 ralists, especially in the writings of the present 

 century, have very generally acquiesced in the doc- 

 trine of the varieties {quasi species) of man, as 

 descending, after the great catastrophe of the deluge, 

 from several of the highest ranges of mountains in 

 Asia and Africa, have nevertheless not thought that, 

 whether they were civilized or savage, they must 

 have possessed dogs ; and in that case, their domes- 

 tication being of so remote a period, anterior to the 

 present zoological distribution of terrestrial animals, 

 we have no sufficient data to fix the filiation upon 

 any known type or types; and should it be an- 



* We may quote as examples in the Ruminantia, the Gayal 

 {Bos gaveus\ the hunched oxen of India, and the common 

 breed, perlnaps even the Yak of Tartary, all breeding together 

 a prolific offspring, if proper precautions are used. See these 

 articles in Griffiths' version of the Animal Kingdom. 



It may be claimed also for the domestic cat : the parent 

 race, if we may trust the cat mummeries of Egypt, appearing 

 to be in that country derived from Felis maniculata, while the 

 wild cat of Europe, extending into the East of Asia, is also a 

 progenitor, as well as the Tabby, apparently derived from 

 South America. Their mixed offspring is prolific, and can 

 we say that they are of the same species ? What shall we say 

 of the wild horses of Europe, whose remains are found in suc- 

 cessive deposits, up to the superficial mould ? 



