4 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



measure dispense with the services of his assistant, yet, until the 

 invention of that destructive agent, he was, in default of the dog, 

 reduced to the bow and arrow, the snare, or the pitfall. The dog 

 was also of incalculable service in guarding the flocks and herds 

 from the depredations of the Carnivora, and even man himself 

 was often glad to have recourse to his courage and strength in 

 resisting the lion, the tiger, or the wolf. 



Much has been written on the origin of the dog, and Pennant, 

 Bufibn, and other naturalists have exhausted their powers of re- 

 search and invention in attempting to discover the parent stock 

 from which all are descended. The subject, however, is wrapped 

 in so much obscurity as to baffle all their efforts, and it is still a 

 disputed point whether the shepherd's dog, as supposed by Bufibn 

 and Daniel, or the wolf, as conjectured by Bell, is the progenitor of 

 the various breeds now existing. Anyhow, it is a most unprofitable 

 speculation, and, being unsupported by proof of any kind, it can 

 never be settled upon any reliable basis. We shall not, therefore, 

 waste any space in entering upon this discussion, but leave our 

 readers to investigate the inquiry, if they think fit, in the pages 

 of Bufibn, Linnaeus, Pennant, and Cuvier, and our most recent 

 investigator, Professor Bell. It may, however, be observed that 

 the old hj^pothesis of Pennant that the dog is only a domesticated 

 jackal, crossed with the wolf or fox, though resuscitated by Mr. 

 Bell, is now almost entirely exploded ; for while it accounts some- 

 what ingeniously for the varieties which are met with, yet it is 

 contradicted by the stubborn fact that, in the present day, the 

 cross of the dog with either of these animals, if produced, is in- 



