SPECIES AND VARIETY. 223 



dog*", cat, and even the serviceable rein-deer f, his only- 

 attendant and friend in the icy deserts of the frozen polar 

 regions. Close to Thibet, and just on the declivity of the 

 great central elevation, v^e find the charming region of 

 Cashmire, where great elevation converts the southern heat 

 into perpetual spring, and where Nature has exerted all her 

 powers to produce plants, animals, and man, in the highest 

 perfection. No spot on the whole earth unites so many- 

 advantages ; in none could the human plant have succeeded 

 so well without any care J." This spot, therefore, seems to 

 unite all the characters of paradise, and to be the most 

 appropriate situation in Asia for the birtli-place of the 

 human race. 



Such is the general result of historical inquiry : it points 

 out the East as the earliest or original seat of our species, 



the Balchasch Lake and Bogdo Mountain are probably produced from those 

 which have been set at liberty by the Calrxiucks from religious motives, 

 Fascic. xi. p. 4. note a. 



* Pallas seems fully convinced that the jackal, " copiosissimum in mii- 

 verso oriente animal," is the source of our dogs, which he closely resembles 

 in manner and disposition, being also very like some breeds in size and figure. 

 *♦ Homini facillime adsuescit, nunquam, uti lupus et vulpes cicurati, infldi 

 animi signa edens, lususve cruentans; canes non fugit, fed ardenter appetit, 

 cum iisque colludit, ut pUine nullum sit dubium cum iisdem generaturum, si 

 tentetur experimentum. Vocem deciderii caninoe simillimam habet ; homini 

 Cauda eodem modo abblanditur, et in dorsum provolvi atque manibus demul- 

 ceri amat. Ipse quoque ulnlatus ejus, cum latratu canum ejulabundo magL 

 nam habet analogiam. Ergo dubium vix esse puto,hominis speciem, in eadem 

 cum lupo aureo climate naturalitcr inquilinam, antiquitus hujus catulis cieu- 

 ratis domesticos sibi educasse canes, quorum naturalis instinctus jam homini, 

 quem feri non multnm time:it, amicus, et in venationem pronus erat." SpirJL 

 Zool. fasc.xi. p. 1, note. 



These opinions are confirmed by the statements of Guldenst^ut, who 

 found the ccecum and the teeth perfectly alike in the dog and jackal : it is 

 not so in the wolf. The jackall makes water sideways; " odorat anuni 

 alterius; cohaeret copula junctus." Nov. Comment. Petrop. v. 20, p. 459. 

 tab. xi. 



+ The rein-deer is only known at present in the coldest regions. Adelung 

 could not, I think, have any sufficient authority for placing its origin in the 

 region and climate which he here describes. 



:{: AuELUNG ; Ir. theil. Einleiiung, ^. 3 — 9. 



