SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 665 



are derived from the Common Wolf, must be admitted, un- 

 less we are to reject evidence which, in every branch of 

 natural science, would be received. But there is more than 

 one species of Wolf, and there are other wild canidae which 

 we may term Wolves, which are equally fitted to submit 

 themselves to the influence of domestication. The Prairie 

 Dog, or the Prairie Wolf, has been domesticated, as well as 

 the Aguaras of America ; the Dingo of New Holland has 

 been tamed by the rudest savages, and is one of the dogs of 

 China and Japan ; the Dholes of India have been domesti- 

 cated, and, we can scarcely doubt, the Hounds of Nepaul ; 

 and the dogs of Africa are very numerous, and must be be- 

 lieved to have been derived from the Canidse proper to that 

 continent. If we assume, then, the Common Wolf to have 

 been the origin of all dogs, we must equally assume it to be 

 the parent stock of all the wild species of canidte which have 

 been subdued, of the* Prairie and Aguara dogs of America, 

 of the Dingo of the Eastern Islands, of the Dholes of India, 

 and of the numerous species which have yielded dogs to the 

 inhabitants of Africa. The Common Wolf is certainly the 

 parent stock of numerous dogs of the northern hemisphere ; 

 but, "unless we are to assert that it is the parent stock like- 

 wise of many canidse which we hold to be specifically dis- 

 tinct from one another, and from the Wolf, we cannot ad- 

 mit it to be the parent stock of all domesticated dogs. 



Another theory is, that the primal type of the Dog is lost, 

 and that it is from some one species now extinct that all 

 the varieties of the existing races have sprung. But this 

 hypothesis involves us in suppositions which we are unable 

 to support by any truths known, or which can ever be known 

 to us, in natural history. For, admitting this hypothesis, 

 we must believe that the primal type of the Dog, whatever it 

 be, is likewise the type of the Wolf, and that thus the Wolf 

 is sprung from an animal w T hich we suppose to have resem- 

 bled the domestic dogs. It is true that there may have been, 

 although we never can have a knowledge of the fact, some 



