ORIGIN OF THE DOG. II* 



distinct known varieties of the dog some 400 years B.C., some 

 slow hounds, gifted with keen sense of smell, others of a 

 greyhound type depending on their speed to run down their 

 prey ; we may read full mention of in Xenophons memor- 

 abilia of Socrates Lib. iii. ch. ii. Dec. 8. 



I maintain the sculptures themselves prove the empirical 

 fallacy of the suppositions lupine origin of the dog. But 

 beyond this, experience in breeding reveals to the operator, 

 if he has any discernment, the necessity of their having been 

 at least some half dozen primary distinct varieties, to account 

 for the opposing fixed characteristics in the known breeds, 

 which have existed from the earliest times, in order to produce 

 the various blends or allied groups of varieties, some of which 

 have been formed in early ages, while others are known 

 compounds produced within the memory of man, but these 

 latter, unlike the former are variable in their peculiarities. 



From some half dozen known typical races, it would have 

 been, and still would be, possible to produce all the varieties. 

 And what strengthens this theory formed after lengthened 

 experience in breeding and careful investigation, is that 

 practical writers on poultry (for one I refer to that talented 

 and interesting writer the Rev. E. Saul Dixon, M.A., who 

 treats on this subject in the preface to his work on Poultry), 

 have likewise become impressed w r ith the fact that there must 

 have been several distinct aboriginal varieties, to account for 

 the production of the numerons existing races both of Poultry 

 and dogs as well. 



One of the strongest arguments against the dog being 

 merely a domesticated and cultivated \volf, is the fact that 

 whenever abandoned and left to seek its own livelihood, 

 none of the emancipated dogs have ever bred back into wolves 



