10 INTRODUCTION. 



that, without this aid, man would have found it difficult 

 either to gain or maintain such conquest. This is ex- 

 emplified in the present situation of those countries 

 where either the dog is not indigenous, or his uses are 

 not known. Here the wretched inhabitants are con- 

 tent to search for casual subsistence from the natural 

 fruits of the earth, the accidental ensnarings of animals 

 less wily than themselves, or the contributions of a re- 

 ceding tide ; and even these, wanting the protecting care 

 of the dog, they are frequently forced to share with 

 the wild beasts that surround them. 



On attempting a sketch of the natural history of any 

 animal, our first efforts are necessarily directed to its 

 immediate origin ; and in this instance it would be pecu- 

 liarly interesting to be enabled to trace the exact gene- 

 alogy of one that is now become our constant compa- 

 nion and most faithful friend. Nevertheless, we have 

 to lament the obscurity of the subject is such, that the 

 most distinguished zoologists are totally at variance 

 with regard to it. Most of our eminent naturalists, 

 justly appreciating the importance of the dog, have 

 advocated his claim to a pure originality of formation ; 

 others, and those of no mean note, have derived him 

 from one or other of the members of the genus to which 

 he belongs; while a third class has considered his ori- 

 gin as altogether spurious, and the effect of the ac- 

 cidental commixture of other nearly allied animals. 

 Again, a few of those who allow him all the originality 

 of formation his most zealous partizans could wish, 

 have yet deemed it impossible that the varied scions 

 crowing around them can have proceeded from one 

 common stock, but altered by the powerful agencies 

 of climate, habit, food, and domestication, into the 

 vast diversifications of size and form that now distin- 

 guish this extensive family. On the contrary, they have 



