ASS. 



221 



size, and increased length anil shagginess of the hair, 

 which take place in this and in other species of 

 mammalia, when made to reside in countries much 

 colder than those which are natural to them, are 

 connected with each other ; and that that portion of the 

 substance and action of the animal which, in the cold 

 climate, goes to the production of the additional 

 covering, would, in a more genial climate, go to 

 increase the size and flesh of the animal. 



To this law the ass yields, but still it yields as a 

 whole ; for it preserves its form even more pertinaci- 

 ously than its colour. It is usually said that the ears 

 of tame asses are longer in proportion than those of 

 wild ones, but the fact is not very fully established, 

 la other respects, however, the former, in all climates 

 and under all modes of treatment, is true to the type. 

 The head never gets disproportionally large, the legs 

 never thicken ; and the change falls so equally upon 

 all parts of the animal, that one cannot upon any just 

 grounds consider it as a variety. 



There is still another circumstance which is 

 worthy of consideration as tending to show the stub- 

 bornness with which the nature of the ass adheres to 

 its normal type, and that is the case of hybrids. Ana- 

 logy points out as a general law of animated nature 

 and though it has only very recently, and, as one may 

 say, incidentally, been made a matter of scientific 

 research, observation, so far as it has gone, appears 

 to establish the fact that in the case of hybrids the 

 externa! form takes more after the male, and the consti- 

 stitutionand disposition, and where there is a difference 

 in that, the internal organisation, takes more after 

 the female. In the hybrids between the ass and 

 horse, however, the stubbornness of the former animal 

 to its normal type appears to give a predominating 

 character to the hybrid. 



There are, of course, two hybrids between those 

 species, the mule when the male is an ass, and the 

 hinncy when the male is a horse. The former has not 

 only much more the external characters of the father 

 than of the mother, but it has many of the constitu- 

 tional qualities the patience, the temperance, the 

 hardihood, and, as it is called, the stubbornness. The 

 mule is not nearly so showy, so fleet for a short dis- 

 tance, so dashing, or so headlong as the horse, but, 

 give it its pace, and i f . can do more, endure more, 

 may be said to be at once the most cautious and the 

 most sure-footed of animals ; and for these reasons it 

 is chosen to bear loads along paths where hardly any 

 other animal could maintain its footing, even though 

 unloaded. Thehinney has sonic of the external cha- 

 racters of the horse, but not nearly so many as the 

 mule has of the ass ; and those which it does have 

 are more localised and broken, and appear in particu- 

 lar parts rather than in the general aspect of the ani- 

 mal. The ears are proportionally shorter than those 

 of the mule, and the head and tail have some resem- 

 blance to those of the horse, but the general aspect 

 of the body is not a little asinine. It has none of 

 the qualities of the horse, and even the better ones of 

 the ass appear to be deteriorated by the cross. There 

 is another point : the beauty and value of mules 

 depend far more upon the superiority of asses than on 

 that of horses ; and therefore mules of the best quality 

 can be bred only in countries where asses are less 

 deteriorated than they are in England, though the 

 horses of that country may be of an inferior description. 



There is another point still, which though more 

 vague than any of those that have been stated, is yet 



worth mentioning, if only for the purpose of calling 

 attention to the subject. Mules, though they do not 

 breed with each other, and preserve fhe broken race, 

 are yet, generally speaking, perfect or fertile animals, 

 and can breed back to the pure blood of either species ; 

 but it is said that they return much sooner and more 

 readily to the normal type of the ass than they do to 

 that of the horse. Thus, in every point of \\c\\ in 

 which it can be taken, the ass appears to be by far 

 the more stubborn to its specific character ; and thus, 

 instead of altering in some respects, so as to adapt 

 itself to difference of climate, and remaining un- 

 changed in others, it alters as a whole. It is very im- 

 portant for breeders and cultivators to know that those 

 species which remain stubborn to the normal type, 

 which they have in their native places, are (whether 

 they be animals or plants) much less profitably culti- 

 vated over an extensive range of latitude or climate, 

 than those which are plastic to circumstances. 



On this account it is not probable ^that, though the 

 ass is a strong, hardy, healthy, and economical ani- 

 mal, it could be so improved by training, as to make it 

 fit, in this country, for any but the most common pur- 

 poses, such as relieving the back of the burden, or the 

 limbs of the fatigue of walking, to those who require 

 no faster progressive motion than they could obtain 

 by the use of their own feet. In all other cases, velo- 

 city is so important an element, in the saving of time 

 and thereby adding to the efficient length of life, that 

 the comparative cheapness of the ass would be no 

 compensation. The probability, therefore, is, that in 

 England the ass must be left to its present owners, 

 and remain subjected to its present treatment. It is 

 not indeed an animal adapted to very high states of 

 improvement, how valuable soever it may be in those 

 earlier stages of the progress, when the value of time 

 is much less, and a little additional expense is matter 

 of more serious consideration. 



The ass is naturally an inhabitant of the wilder- 

 ness, and therefore a wild and half-cultivated country 

 is the most natural to it. On bleak commons, and 

 among the thistles and other rough and tall plants, 

 which remain asses' food in the greatest intensity of 

 the summer's drought, the ass is at home ; but among 

 rich meadows and highly-cultivated fields, it is out of 

 congruity and keeping a thing of wild nature, while 

 all around it is art and improvement. It seems that 

 the ass itself is not quite in its element in these rich 

 pastures. It gets fat and sleek, but it at the same 

 time gets indolent and less strong and 'enduring in 

 proportion to its appearance. If the ground is soft, 

 the hoofs of the ass, which arc by nature adapted for 

 hard and dry surfaces, get enlarged by an unnatural 

 growth in length, and the feet become unsightly, 

 and the gait of the animal is awkward circumstances 

 which do not happen when it is upon the dry com- 

 mons. In England, surfaces which are good for little 

 else appear to be the most congenial pastures for the 

 ass ; and in the present state of the country, the ass 

 seems to be the best animal only to those who ca 

 afford to keep no other. 



This might be inferred from what has been already 

 stated ; for if the ass remains so stubbornly true to its 

 natural external type, it must remain equally so to 

 the nature of its pasture and its food, and the nearer 

 that these approach to what it has in a state of nature, 

 the more will it retain the size and vigour which it has 

 there. Plastic animals, which break into varieties 

 adapted to different climates and modes of treatment. 



