NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 35 



bulk also are equally affected by its operations. By its powerful 

 agency, varieties the most disproportionate are produced. Com- 

 pare the eastern pigmy horse, scarcely thirty inches high, and 

 the diminutive ponies of Shetland ; compare these with the stately 

 coach and cart horses of England. Place together the gigantic 

 urus of Lithuania ; the monstrous bison of America, with his 

 shoulders surmounted by an enormous lump of flesh ; the mild 

 zebu of Africa ; the musk bull of Arctic regions ; the European 

 ox, and the dwarf bull of India, not higher than a young Eng- 

 lish calf; having so done, the extremes of size and dissimilitudes 

 of form and character will leave us in astonishment at the num- 

 ber and variety of Nature's w^orks. If we carry on the compari- 

 son to sheep and swine, we shall find the effects of climate as 

 apparent on them as on the horse and ox. In Africa, the sheep 

 are found swift, tall, gaunt, and even bold, with a pendulous 

 dewlap. In Turkey, they are seen with a fleshy rump entirely 

 disproportioned to the other parts. In Persia, this disproportion 

 is translated to the tail, which is said, in some instances, to weigh 

 fifteen or even twenty pounds. In Iceland, sheep are found with 

 three or more horns ; in Wallachia, with two only, but those are 

 long and spiral ; and in Kamtschatka they also have horns of an 

 enormous length, but without convolutions. In northern countries 

 the sheep are diminutive ; but in temperate climates they arrive 

 to a great size and weight. In swine, the variations, in size at 

 least, are "equally disproportionate. In England the hog has at- 

 tained to the following extraordinary proportions : length, three 

 yards eight inches; height, four feet and a half; weight, seven 

 hundred pounds. In China, on the contrary, he measures from 

 eighteen to twenty inches in height, and in some parts of India he 

 is still smaller. In Piedmont, swine are black ; in Bavaria, red ; 

 and in Normandy, white : and, as a further proof of the effect 

 of locality on them, it is observed, that the breeds originally re- 

 moved to Cuba are become twice as large as those first taken 

 there. Need we, therefore, seek for a varied parentage for the 

 dog, although a specimen is shewn in the Dresden Museum, that 



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