NATURAL HISTORY. 195 



Lcen found among pome individuals, singularities, or 

 apparent varieties, endeavours may have been used in 

 order to perpetuate them, by uniting together these 

 singular individuals, as we do at present, when we 

 wish to procure new breeds of dogs, and other animals. 



Dogs which have been abandoned in the deserts of 

 America, and have lived wild for a hundred and fifty, 

 or two hundred years, though changed from their ori- 

 ginal breed when they are sprung of the domestic dogs, 

 have notwithstanding this long space of time retained, 

 at least in part, their primitive form, and travellers re- 

 port that they resemble our greyhound : these wild 

 dogs, however, are extremely thin and light* and as 

 the greyhound does not differ much from the cur, or 

 from the dog which we call the shepherd's dog, it is 

 natural to think, that these wild dogs are rather of this 

 species, than real greyhounds. Ancient travellers 

 inform us, that the dogs of Canada have the ears straight 

 h'ke foxes, and resemble the middle-sized mastiff, that 

 is, our shepherd's dog, and that those of the deserts of 

 the Aratilles isles, had also the head and ears very 

 long, and are very like foxes. 



Besides what we learn from the narratives of travellers, 

 we find that <logs of cold climates have all long snouts 

 and straight ears; that those of Lapland are small, 

 that their ears are straight, and their snouts pointed ; 

 that those of Siberia, known by the name of wolf dogs, 

 are larger than those of Lapland ; but that they have 

 also the ears straight, the hair rough, and the snout 

 pointed. We learn too that those of Iceland, have- 

 also some resemblance to those of Siberia ; and that, 

 even in warm climates, such as -the Cape of Good 

 Hope, the dogs natural to the countries have sharp 

 snouts, straight ears, the tail dragging on the ground, 

 and the hair shining, but long and frizzled. 



