NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 19 



mentioned cubs, which, though only five we'eks old when I 

 took l.im from his dam, was as fierce and violent in his own 

 little way as the most savage denizen of the forest. I brought 

 up this animal among my dogs ; for them he conceived a con- 

 siderable degree of affection, or respect perhaps, for submission 

 was the most striking feature of his conduct towards them ; 

 and was doubtless induced by the frequent and substantial 

 castigations he received from " Bevis," a noble dog of the true 

 breed of bloodhound ; but beyond this he was any thing but 

 tame. He never, it is true, exactly dared to attack me in 

 front, but he once showed a disposition to do so, when I pulled 

 him down by the tail as he was endeavoring to get over my 

 garden wall. He, however, on several occasions, charged at 

 me from behind, when he thought my attention was otherwise 

 engaged. I was, however, invariably on my guard, ever 

 carried a good stick, and on these occasions the wolf always 

 got the worst of it. He once only succeeded in inflicting a 

 severe bite ; and as by this time I had utterly despaired of 

 making any thing of him he was about eighteen months old 

 I sent him about his business. He subsequently fell into 

 the hands of a showman, and assumed his proper position 

 the caravan. 



As to dogs, when accident drives them to subsist on their 

 own resources, thus rendering them wild, I grant the fact of 

 their assuming feral characters ; but as to their thus acquiring, 

 in the course of a few generations, the habit and aspect, or the 

 general similitude of wolves, I humbly conceive it to be an as- 

 sertion only, and one that has yet to be proved. Even such 

 dogs as have been thus driven into feral and independent life, 

 will be found ever ready to acknowledge the control of man, 

 and may, with comparatively little trouble, be induced to re- 

 turn to their allegiance to him. Nor will the whelps of such 

 redomesticated dogs be born wild, as is the case with the cubs 

 of the tamest wolves. It is, in the case of these dogs, circum- 

 stances, and not natural instinct, that have driven them wild ; 

 and, these circumstances ceasing to operate, domestication 

 returns. 



I would ask another question. How does it happen that the 

 dog is to be met with in every quarter of the globe to which 

 man has penetrated, while the true wolf has never yet been 

 met with south of the equator ? Further, are not several dis- 

 tinct species of wolf admitted to exist ? Is there not more than 

 one distinct species of wolf admitted by naturalists to exist in 

 North America alone ? It has not even been attempted to be 



