Early History of the Dog 5 



When one turns to Darwin it is with a feeling that here at least we will 

 have ground for whatever is suggested as probable, and it is a belief well 

 founded, for there is sound reasoning backing up his conclusions. It 

 will be well for those interested in this branch of the subject to read Chapter I. 

 in "Origin of Species," and so grasp all he says on the subject of variation 

 of domestic animals and their character. Darwin was not a believer in 

 mixtures of an impossible nature, nor that the wolf was the original dog. 

 At least there is no indication of that in the chapter referred to. He says 

 plainly that he does not believe that the entire amount of difference in 

 breeds of dogs is due to production under domestication, but that some 

 small part is owing to their having been descended from distinct species. 

 The difficulty here is that the varieties of wild dogs that we know of are 

 practically alike. They vary only to a slight degree, while preserving 

 general characteristics, whether found in India, Africa or Australia. Every 

 one of these wild dogs has the family resemblance which suggests a possibly 

 common ancestry; and how one more than another could have been the 

 ancestor of the bulldog, another of the greyhound, and either one of those 

 or still a third variety have been the origin of the toy spaniel, it is not easy 

 to see. Darwin says in the next sentence that in other domesticated animals 

 there is presumptive or even strong evidence that they descended from a 

 single wild stock. 



Of course we know that all our varieties came from an original stock; 

 and if we read Darwin as saying that as all these wild dogs were so much 

 alike and so closely allied in type we can hardly ascribe to any one variety 

 the sole ability to have produced the domestic dog in all its varieties, but 

 that from any one of them might have come the "monstrosities" which man 

 fostered into varieties, we will get at a clear understanding and place our- 

 selves on tenable ground. This seems to have been Darwin's opinion, 

 for a few sentences later we read, "Looking at the domestic dogs of the 

 whole world, I have, after a laborious collection of all known facts, come 

 to the conclusion that several wild species of Canida have been tamed, and 

 that their blood, in some cases, mingled together, flows in the veins of 

 our domestic breeds." 



Later on Darwin disputes the claims of some that varieties developed 

 as a result of crossing aboriginal species. Quite right, for by such means 

 you arrive only at an intermediate stage or else a reversal, and that reversal 

 will be to the original stock. For instance, you can make the Boston 



