102 INTRODUCTION. 



writers, and are led bj inferences from their own 

 observations, rather than by the authority of names. 

 We know it to be the opinion of foresters and hunts- 

 men of the north and east of Europe, men generally 

 well educated, who live wholly in the presence of 

 nature. We are assured it is the doctrine of the 

 Chinese and Tartars, particularly in the notice on 

 dogs in the treatise on hunting under the names of 

 Id, 1st, and Kuschuk. We know from personal 

 inquiry, that both the North and South American 

 Indians do not doubt their dogs being of the same 

 origin with the wild canines of their forests; and, 

 lastly, we may appeal to inferences drawn from 

 conversations with Baron Cuvier, and laying aside 

 what was merely verbal, point to his text, where, 

 bearing in mind that he made it a law not to assert 

 as fact that which he had not verified by personal 

 inspection, speaking of dogs as a species, he never- 

 theless admits that " quelques natm*alistes pensent 

 que le chien est un loup, d'autres que c'est un chacal 

 apprivoise : les chiens redevenus sauvages dans des 

 iles desertes ne ressemblent cependant ni a Tun ni 

 a I'autre." * He then notices the matin, a breed not 

 known in England, but approaching our great farm- 

 yard and drover dogs, as possessing a skull most 

 similar to that of the wolf, though the ears are 

 drooping. Further on,t speaking of the jackal, he 

 says : " c*est un animal vorace, qui chasse a la ma- 

 niere des chiens et paroit lui ressembler plus qu au- 



* Regne Animal, vol. i. p. 149. f lb. p. 15L 



