ACCLIMATISATION.] THE DOG, AND ITS VARIETIES; [acclimatisation. 



America and the eastern coast of Asia is 

 rapidly extending. Already an emigration 

 from China to America has begun. Through 

 Enssian and English influences the centre of 

 Asia is moved, and the current will flow to 

 the very heart of America. The central and 

 Eastern Asiatic races are by no means comely ; 

 but they are strong — as strong in their way as 

 the English race. In Australia, however, 

 there is likely to be a still greater mingling of 

 races than in America. Australia will receive 

 hosts from Europe, hosts from Eastern and 

 Central Asia, and hosts also from Southern 

 Asia and Southern Africa. 



Wherever the English race has penetrated, 

 it has not failed to be the prevailing one ; but it 

 ought not anywhere to be the exclusive race. 

 In India a large leaven of English blood is 

 demanded. On the southern slopes of the 

 Himalayas, and in other mountain ranges of 

 India, colonies of Scottish Highlanders might 

 be planted with immense advantage. But, 

 besides, all English soldiers going to India 

 should, when their term of service expires, 

 settle there. This would have a manifold 

 benefit. It would lessen the military expendi- 

 ture ; it would strengthen the English empire 

 in India ; and it would rapidly propagate the 

 English language, and diffuse English civilisa- 

 tion. There is already no race equal to the 

 English ; but might it not dt home be nobly 

 transfigured, and tiius be further moulded for 

 ita mighty achievements abroad ? The 

 English, properly so called, have sinew, solid- 

 ity, indomitable endurance; but they are 

 deficient in rapidity of movement, and in ima- 

 gination. Blend with them the finest Asiatic 

 races, and the defect is overcome. This we 

 have already physically shown in our treatment 

 of the English race-horse. 



A beautiful experiment in acclimatisation 

 would be to send to New Zealand the Cir- 

 cassians, who, by successive defeats, have been 

 driven from their homes. The Circassians are 

 universally admitted to be a singularly gifted, 

 comely, and heroic race. In New Zealand 

 they would find mountains as grand as those 

 of the Caucasus, and no ferocious Eussians to 

 hunt them down. 



But, wliilst men can, almost anywhere be 

 acelimatisfd, we are not so certain that this 

 cou.id be tlie case with such birds or beasts as 

 404 



miist always be more or less under the power 

 of climatic influence. It is not our purpose 

 here to consider this question at large ; but, in 

 reference to the dog, we believe that even he, 

 universal as is his distribution over the face of 

 the earth, and hardy as is his nature, could 

 not have his race perpetuated, if shifted from 

 one climate to another. The dog of the 

 tropics would not continue his race long in 

 the higher latitudes of the temperate zone ; 

 nor would even the English dog long survive 

 the rigours of an arctic region. Of this we 

 have an example : — Mr. Lloyd, in his Swedish 

 travels, was going to hunt the boar on the 16th 

 of January, when the quicksilver was twenty- 

 five degrees below zero ; and though he was 

 habited in his usual clothes, with the exception 

 of an additional waistcoat, he experienced 

 little inconvenience, as he kept himself warm 

 with walking. Erom not sufficiently covering 

 his ears, however, he got them slightly frost- 

 bitten. AVhat, however, was the case with 

 Paijas, his only dog ? He was an extreme 

 suflerer. "This," he says, " was partly owing to 

 his hair having become thin and ragged, iu 

 consequence of his advanced age. None of 

 the native dogs, indeed, even in their full 

 vigour, are altogether proof against the 

 vreather, if it be unusually severe. Their feet 

 seem to be the most affected ; for I have many 

 a time seen them hold up their legs from the 

 snow, and cry out most piteously. This being 

 the case with animals whom Nature has pro- 

 vided with extremely warm jackets, it may be 

 imagined how little able some of our thin- 

 coated English dogs would be to face the 

 rigours of a Northern winter. 



" I saw this exemplified in two instances : — 

 One was an English bloodhound, which Mr. 

 Otway Cave, then member for Leicester, was 

 so kind as to present to me ; the other was a 

 bulldog that I procured from home. Both of 

 these dogs would, doubtless, have answered 

 my purpose exceedingly well ; but they could 

 not exist in the forest, if the quicksilver 

 happened to be a few degrees below zero. On 

 one occasion, indeed, the bulldog became so 

 benumbed with the cold, that his limbs abso- 

 lutely stiffened ; when, to save his life, I was 

 obliged to cause one of my people, after putting 

 him into a bag, to carry him a distance of some 

 ten miles, to a habitable part of the country. 



