DOG KIND. 31 



scarcely perceive the difference ; and it may be 

 asserted also, that, externally, some dogs more 

 nearly resemble the wolf than they do each other. 

 It was this strong similitude that first led some 

 naturalists to consider them as the same animal, 

 and to look upon the wolf as the dog in its state 

 of savage freedom : however, this opinion is en- 

 tertained no longer ; the natural antipathy those 

 two animals bear to each other, the longer time 

 which the wolf goes with young than the dog, 

 the one going over a hundred days, and the 

 other not quite sixty ; the longer period of life in 

 the former than the latter, the wolf living twenty 

 years, the dog not fifteen ; all sufficiently point 

 out a distinction, and draw a line that must for 

 ever keep them asunder. 



The Wolf, from the tip of the nose to the in- 

 sertion of the tail, is about three feet seven inches 

 long, and about two feet five inches high ; 

 which shows him to be larger than our great 

 breed of mastiffs, which are seldom found to be 

 above three feet by two. His colour is a mix- 

 ture of black, brown, and grey, extremely rough 

 and hard, but mixed towards the roots with a 

 kind of ash-coloured fur. In comparing him to 

 any of our well known breed of dogs, the great 

 Dane, or mongrel greyhound, for instance, he 

 will appear to have the legs shorter, the head 

 larger, the muzzle thicker, the eyes smaller, and 

 more separated from each other, and the ears 

 shorter and straighten He appears in every res- 

 pect stronger than the dog ; and the length of 

 his hair contributes still more to his robust ap- 



