1 84 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLAY 



The theory that great size was in itself a bar to 

 the well-being of the giant species, is an easy, if not 

 a wholly satisfactory, means of accounting for the 

 degeneration, for the failure of food can hardly have 

 been such, in the Indian forests for instance, as to 

 account for the dwindling of forms like the * Elephas 

 ganesa' into the smaller but still enormous bulk of 

 the herds which still survive and multiply in the 

 jungles of Hindostan. 



But if the limit of the food supply is the key 

 to the apparent limitation of size, in the case of 

 most animals which are widely distributed, there 

 seems no reason why the loss should not be made 

 good, in the case of domesticated animals at least, 

 by a process of generous feeding continued for 

 generations, until, if it suited the needs of human 

 society, we produced oxen far larger than the Bos 

 primigenus, rabbits as large as sheep, dogs as tall 

 as a polar bear, and a breed of horses between 

 twenty and thirty hands high, which would, of 

 course, be too large for riding, except with a 

 howdah or a camel-saddle, but would draw loads 

 of from four to five tons. 



The argument of a natural limit set to size, 

 derived from the circumstances of wild animals, 

 must not be pushed too far. In the case of many 

 domesticated animals the contrary has been proved by 



