8 THE DOG. 



change, is nevertheless, marked like a graduated scale, with the 

 varied effect of latitude. The lion of Mount Atlas is a small, 

 dark tawney-coloured animal, and, as he approaches the torrid 

 zone, his colour not only becomes much lighter, but he increases 

 in size, strength, and fierceness. The difference is still more 

 manifest between the Esquimaux and the inhabitant of more 

 southern latitudes. On this principle of reasoning, therefore, it 

 requires no great strength of imagination to suppose, that the 

 wild dog assumes various forms and colours according to situa- 

 tion ; and that " the influence of climate and food alone," were 

 not sufficient to produce those varieties above-mentioned, but 

 that the natives of remote countries were also resorted to for 

 this purpose. 



It is a generally received opinion, that the wolf and the dog, 

 as well as the fox and the dog, will engender, and, that the off- 

 spring of such a conjunction is capable of procreation ; which, if 

 true, would clearly prove that these animals are merely accidental 

 ramifications of the same stock : but I am almost equally inclined 

 to doubt on this head ; nor would any thing short of ocular de- 

 monstration remove my infidelity upon a subject, which, however 

 first appearances may seem to favor it, I am perfectly convinced 

 has in general been inconsiderately asserted, and handed from one 

 to another without experiment or reflection. 



All the endeavours of M. Buffon to make them engender, as 

 he assures us, were ineffectual. For this purpose, he bred up 

 a young wolf, taken in the woods, at two months old, with a 

 matin dog of the same age. They were shut up together, with- 

 out any other, in a large yard, where they had a shelter for 

 retiring. They neither of them knew any other individual of 

 their kind, nor even any other man but he who had the charge 

 of feeding them. In this manner they were kept for three 

 years ; still with the same attention, and without constraining or 

 tying them up. During the first year the young animals played 



