662 THE DOG. 



When the rich and smiling shores of the New "World were 

 first visited by European plunderers, the natives were every- 

 where found in possession of innumerable dogs, manifestly 

 derived from the wild of species proper to the countries 

 which they inhabited. They all differed from the dogs of 

 Europe. They are yet possessed in considerable numbers 

 by the ruder tribes, and are used for the chase of land-ani- 

 mals, and in some cases for fishing. They are generally re- 

 linquished by the Indians, when they can obtain those of 

 European lineage, which are far superior in sagacity, courage, 

 and power of endurance, to the native dogs of South America. 



Thus, in regions the most remote, and by people the most 

 dissimilar, the Canidse proper to different countries have been 

 subjected to the uses of the human inhabitants, The Com- 

 mon Wolf, under the modifications of character which he has 

 tended to assume in the state of nature, is proper to the 

 northern division of both hemispheres, and has been domesti- 

 cated, accordingly, by the inhabitants of both. Southward of 

 the glacial regions on either continent, other dogs have been 

 subdued, in America those proper to the New World, and 

 in Asia and Europe those pertaining to the Old. Africa, 

 too, has produced its dogs for the uses of its inhabitants. 

 The Common Wolf, though with those characters which pe- 

 culiar agencies seem to produce on all the animal inhabit- 

 ants of this continent, has doubtless yielded his services to 

 the natives of Africa, as well as to those of Asia and Europe. 

 But there are other Canidse proper to the same vast conti- 

 nent, which we may believe to have been likewise subdued, 

 as the Egyptian Wolf or Deeb, and the Canidse of Senegal 

 and the interior, and perhaps the Hunting Hyaena, and even 

 the beautiful little Zerdas with their soft hair, their long ears, 

 and gentle habits. The dogs of Africa, indeed, seem to be 

 extremely varied ; and it is reasonable to believe, that it is to 

 this source that we owe some of those gentler and smaller 

 dogs with which we are familiar, and which have always 

 been derived in the greatest numbers, or rather all origi- 



