SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 663 



nally, from the countries of the Mediterranean, When the 

 Canaries were discovered, numerous dogs, of a large size, 

 were found in the possession of the inhabitants. In the heart 

 of Africa, dogs have been found having much of the charac- 

 ters of the older Blood-hounds of England. Two of these were 

 brought home by Major Denham, who states that he had 

 seen them hunt the Gazelle by the scent with exquisite pre- 

 cision, taking short cuts when the animal made a turn, so as 

 to come again upon the track. Africa, then, abounds in Dogs 

 of various kinds, and which we have as much reason to be- 

 lieve indigenous to the regions they inhabit, as those of the 

 Asiatics are to the continent where they are found. During 

 the intercourse carried on beyond all memorial of tradition 

 and history between the people of Africa and Europe, it is 

 not possible that the dogs of the one people should not have 

 been communicated to the other ; and thus we may believe 

 that, with the mixed varieties of dogs with which we are con- 

 versant in Europe, the blood of the African as well as the 

 Asiatic races has been mingled. 



The ever ingenious and eloquent Buffon eagerly maintain- 

 ed that the Shepherd's Dog, which, from its habits, he sup- 

 posed to be the nearest to the native type of the species, was 

 the original of all the dogs known to us. But the Shepherd's 

 Dog differs in different countries as much as the other dogs 

 of the same countries. The Shepherd's Dog referred to by 

 the French naturalist is that of France, which is merely a 

 variety of the dogs of shepherds, although agreeing in many 

 characters with those of other parts of Europe. But this 

 variety resembles the Wolf much more nearly than it re- 

 sembles such dogs as the Spaniel, the Mastiff, and Grey- 

 hound ; and it is surely more reasonable to believe that it is 

 derived from the Wolf, which it resembles, than that it is 

 the parent stock of Dogs which it does not resemble. Were 

 the theory good, we must suppose that this species assumes 

 in Siberia characters so like a Wolf that it cannot be dis- 

 tinguished from one, in Thibet the characters of a Mastiff, 



