70 INTRODUCTION. 



that to reject the above conclusion, evidently reduces 

 us to the necessity of regarding the wolf and the dog, 

 the camel and the dromedary, the goat and the sheep 

 as constituting but single species ; for all these pro- 

 duce fertile offspring. 



It seems therefore more consonant with the distri- 

 bution of several genera of animals on the earth's 

 surface to believe, that osculating forms existed ab 

 initio distinct, circumstanced to accomplish certain 

 ends, such as the service of man, and therefore framed 

 so as to render them fusible into one species. The 

 Argalis or wild sheep before-mentioned, bear all the 

 evidence of this fusibility, and that the domesticated 

 varieties spread over the Old World, have the blood 

 of more than one original species in their organization, 

 may fairly be inferred from several of Persia and 

 High Asia bearing a near resemblance to the wild in 

 their vicinity. We may even assume, that civilized 

 man, if it had been his lot to deal with the zebras of 

 South Africa instead of the horses of Asia, in due time 

 would have succeeded in amalgamating the three or 

 four species now existing into one domestic animal 

 little inferior to our present horse : that the powers 

 of draught would have been found in the Quagga, 

 the qualities of charger in the Zebra and the properties 

 of mountain pony in the Dauw. 



With these impressions, we may for the present 

 suspend our opinion ; whether several wild races of 

 horses were, or were not originally of the same species, 

 and with the greater cause, since there are Equida 

 undeniably different who produce nevertheless mules 



