DOMESTICATED MAMMALS AND THEIR USES 233 



races of the Old World would tame the ox, the sheep, and the 

 goat before turning their attention to the pig, and the evidence 

 of the lake-dwellings of Switzerland favours such a conclusion, 

 for in that area at any rate swine were not domesticated till the 

 Age of Stone had given way to the Age of Bronze. And posi- 

 tive evidence is also available to show that the Swiss lake-dwellers 

 of the latter period cultivated several kinds of grain, and were, 

 in fact, agriculturists of a primitive kind. 



Ordinary European Swine are probably not an unmixed race, 

 but the predominant strain in them is derived from the Wild Boar 

 (Sus scrofa], which at the present time is widely distributed 

 through Europe, North Africa, West Asia, and Central Asia. It 

 inhabited Britain down to the end of the sixteenth century. The 

 Wild Boar of India, Ceylon, and Further India is probably a 

 variety of the same species. The domesticated pigs of China and 

 Japan would appear to be of entirely different origin. 



The uses of the Pig are manifold, and too well known to 

 require detailed notice. As Simmonds says (in Animal Products)'. 

 "It is the animal in which there is the least waste between the 

 dead and living weight, nearly all the carcase being utilized. The 

 blood, the skin, the head, and most of the entrails, which are 

 useless in other animals, serving as food." Leather, bristles, and 

 lard (employed for a great variety of purposes) are the most 

 valuable of the remaining products. In 1902 this country imported 

 about 328,600 tons of bacon and ham, the value of which was 

 ^"17,285,867. And it was estimated that in June, 1903, the 

 number of swine in the United Kingdom amounted to 4,085,764. 



THE HORSE (EQUUS CABALLUS). Wild Horses were among 

 the animals hunted by prehistoric man in Europe during the 

 Stone Age, as we know from contemporary drawings that have 

 come down to us from the times (Newer Palaeolithic period) which 

 immediately preceded the final (or Neolithic) epoch of that age, 

 when the implements and weapons of stone were either neatly 

 chipped or carefully polished. It is remarkable that the men of 

 the Newer Palaeolithic period were possessed of considerable 

 artistic power, as is now the case with the Esquimaux, their 

 possible descendants, and they whiled away part of their leisure 

 time by scratching spirited outlines of various wild animals on 

 pieces of bone, ivory, or antler. One such drawing representing 

 two hog-maned horses is depicted in fig. 1168. It would appear, 



