ALTERATIONS PRODUDED BY DOMESTICATION. 57 



In the woods of South America there are abundance of vild 

 swine, possessing all the ferocity of the boar. The following fear- 

 ful scene occurred in Columbia. A party of six hunters had gone 

 out on a sporting expedition. They fell in with a herd of swine, 

 upon which four of them, less experienced than the others, immedi- 

 ately fired, and the swine advanced fiercely to attack them. The 

 four young men, intimidated, took to flight without warning their 

 companions, or considering the danger to which they were exposed. 

 They climbed up into some trees, but the other two were quickly 

 surrounded by the swine. They made a long and desperate defence 

 with their lances, but were at length dragged down. One of them 

 was torn to pieces, and the other dreadfully lacerated, and left for 

 dead by the swine, who now watched the four fugitives in the trees 

 until sunset. Then, probably yielding to the calls of nature, they 

 retired. The surviving hunters then came down and assisted their 

 wounded companion into the canoe, and carried off the remains of 

 the unfortunate man who had fallen in this horrible encounter. (Coch- 

 rane's Columbia, vol. i.) 



We have entered thus much at length into the history of the wild 

 boar, because no one can for a moment doubt that it is the parent 

 stock from which the domesticated breeds of swine originally sprung ; 

 the well-known fact that all kinds breed with the boar, is in itself a 

 sufficient testimony ; but to this we can add that the period of ges- 

 tation is the same in the wild and tame sow ; the anatomical 

 structure is identical ; the general form bears the same characters ; 

 and the habits, so far as they are not altered by domestication, re- 

 main the same. 



Where individuals of the pure, wild race, have been caught young 

 and subjected to the same treatment as a domestic pig, their fierce- 

 ness has disappeared, they have become more social and less noctural 

 in their habits, lost their activity, and lived more to eat. In the course 

 of one or two generations even the form undergoes certain modifi- 

 cations ; the body becomes larger and heavier ; the legs shorter and 

 less adapted for exercise ; the formidable tusks of the boar, being no 

 longer needed as weapons of defence, disappear ; the shape of the 

 head and neck alters ; and in character as well as in form, the ani- 

 mal adapts itself to its position. Nor does it appear that a return 

 to their native wilds restores to them their original appearance ; for, 

 in whatever country pigs have escaped from the control of man, and 

 bred in the woods and wildernesses, there does not appear to be a 

 single instance recorded by any naturalist in which they have re- 

 sumed the habits and form of the wild boar. They become fierce, 

 wild, gaunt, and grisly, and live upon roots and fruits ; but they are 

 still merely degenerated swine, and they still associate together in 

 herds, nor " walk the glade in savage solitary grandeur" like their 

 grim ancestors. 



3* 



