CHAP, viii.j THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 295 



The Domestic Animals. 



The interest of these discoveries in Switzerland does 

 not merely consist in their enabling us to realise that 

 the civilisation of Britain was closely related to that of 

 Switzerland, and to obtain a more just idea of the 

 Neolithic peoples, but in the light they throw on the 

 origin of the domestic animals and of the cultivated 

 fruits. ' In discussing these questions it will be neces- 

 sary to examine the independent testimony of each 

 breed. 



The Dog. 



The dog of the Neolithic age in Switzerland was 

 about equally remote from the wolf and the jackal, and 

 intermediate in size between a hound and a spaniel. 1 

 There is no reason for supposing that it was descended 

 from the European wolf ; but Mr. Darwin's view 2 is prob- 

 ably correct, that it may have been derived from an 

 extinct form which had been imported from some other 

 region. Its nearest native ally, in the wild state, is the 

 jackal, an inhabitant of the warm regions of South- 

 eastern Europe and of Southern and Central Asia ; and 

 it is therefore probable that the breed of dogs was 

 originated under the care of man in one of those countries. 



The Hog. 



The two breeds of hogs, the turf-hog (Sus palustris), 

 or Torfschwein of Eiitimeyer, and the common domestic 

 pig (Sus scrofa domesticus), found in the pile-dwellings, 



1 Riitimeyer, Die Fauna der Pfahlbauten, 4to, 1861, pp. 117-162. 

 2 Darwin, Variation under Domestication, i. p. 19. 



