120 WHERE ROLLS THE OREGON 



than the suddenness and the completeness of the 

 elephant's yielding to the howdah and the ankus 

 as if his slow years had been only a waiting for 

 some rajah to take him from his jungle. The 

 zebra, on the other hand, though a true horse, has 

 never been tamed, or rather, domesticated. He is 

 irredeemably wild. So is the Asiatic ass, which 

 stood to the ancient Hebrew writers for the very 

 symbol of the free and untamable; whereas the 

 Nubian wild ass (the parent of our deeply do- 

 mesticated donkey) is readily brought to harness. 

 For many reasons, we are likely to add new 

 species from time to time to our domesticated 

 family. The establishment of fox-farms is pretty 

 sure, in the end, to yield a domesticated fox ; and 

 this may yet happen even to the bison, and to 

 many species of birds now wild. In Oregon the 

 China pheasant is almost a domesticated fowl, 

 and waits only to be clucked into the coop. 

 In a ride from Corvallis to Portland by train 

 through the Willamette Valley, just as the har- 

 vesting was done, I counted from my car-window 

 fifty-one flocks of these magnificent game-birds 

 feeding in the stubble-fields. They were often so 

 near the houses, and regularly so much a part of 



