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Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses. 251 
show I asked the price of a very beautiful female Ass only one 
ear old; the owner said that he could have 1000 dollars for 
er, but that he had refused that sum. For a three-year-old 
male, shown during the exhibition, 3000 dollars (more than 
£600) were refused. The fact is that mule-breeding is so lucra- 
tive, that there is no price which a very large donkey will not 
command.” 
With reference to the current statement that the Ass nowhere 
thrives in a cold climate, it should be remembered that these 
animals are numerous in Pekin ; and that some at least of the 
Chinese donkeys are fine animals, may be inferred from Dr. 
Hooker’s remark about the Tibetan mules, which he says are 
often as fine as the Spanish. He “rode one, which had per- 
formed a journey from Choombi to Lhassa in fifteen days with 
a man and load.’”’ Nevertheless, as a general rule and irrespec- 
tive of recent introductions, the finest Asses chiefly inhabit Arabia 
and the Levantine countries, and the most degenerate are the 
puny cat-hammed Guddhas of India generally. As Col. Sykes 
remarks, some of these are scarcely larger than a fine Newfound- 
land dog ; but on what ground Col. C. H. Smith supposed this 
to be a wild race inhabiting the Dukhun* it is difficult to ima- 
gine. There are small Asses also in Persia, as about Ispahan, 
which Chardin (as we have seen) denominated the race proper 
to the country, while he mentions that many of the large kind 
are imported into Persia from Arabia. It is curious that Aris- 
totle states that in his time there were no Asses in Pontus, 
Syria, or in the country of the Celts (meaning modern Germany 
and France), Syria being now so celebrated for the excellence of 
its breed of them. For many ages previously they are known 
to have existed in Egypt and Arabia. In short, there seems to 
be no evidence whatever to bear out the current notion that the 
domestic Ass originated in northern Asia, but, on the contrary, 
every reason to infer that it originated in the region where the 
particular species is still found wild, and where also the finest 
and least-altered of the domestic races prevail to this day; and 
that the fact should not have been long ago established is surely 
somewhat remarkable. 
A writer on this animal observes, justly enough, that “the 
Ass is, properly speaking, a mountain species : his hoofs are long 
and furnished with extremely sharp rims, leaving a hollow in 
the centre, by which means he is enabled to tread with more 
security on the steep and slippery sides of precipices. The hoof 
of the Horse, on the contrary, is round and nearly flat under- 
neath ; and we accordingly find that he is more serviceable in 
* Nat. Libr. “ Mammalia,” vol. xii. p. 306. 
17* 
