60 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 



If it were true, that a change of climate affected 

 an animal to such a degree as this hypothesis sup- 

 poses, it would be impossible that any person exist- 

 ing should not have had opportunities of observing 

 very striking instances of that kind. But, instead 

 of this, the most direct proofs of the contrary must 

 have fallen within the observation of every man in 

 the kingdom, in respect to the very animal that he 

 has selected for illustration. The dog is a favoured 

 domestic ; he attaches himself to his master, and 

 follows him wherever he goes. He is thus carried 

 through all the climates of the globe, under the im- 

 mediate controul and inspection of man; and no 

 instance hath ever been known in which an indivi- 

 dual dog has ever Jhus experienced any material 

 change in his external form, far less in his internal 

 qualities. If a smooth-haired Spanish pointer, for 

 instance, be carried to the torrid or the frozen zone, 

 from Kamtschatka through the whole extent of 

 Asia and Europe into America, he is the same 

 smooth-haired dog every where ; and his master 

 recognizes him for the same creature at the first 

 glance : but if the pile of its hair and external ap- 

 pearance be not altered, far less is the animal 

 changed in its other qualities : it still scents the 

 game in the way peculiar to that kind of dog ; it 

 does not, like the greyhound, pursue it by the eye ;* 

 it does not, like the hound, burst forth in sonorous 

 howling when it feels the scent strong : this variety 

 of the dog kind steals upon its prey with extreme 

 caution and circumspection. These qualities it pos- 



