THE WILD GO AT, &c. 371 



Is already covered with hair, and pofTefTes fome 

 other characters of the father. Let thcfe fe- 

 male mongrels be afterwards ferved with a he- 

 goat ; the produce in this fecond generation will 

 make a nearer approach to the fpecies of the 

 father, and Mill nearer in the third, &c. In this 

 manner, the foreign characters would foon over- 

 balance the natural ones ; and this fictitious race 

 might fupport itfelf, and form a variety in the 

 fpecies, the origin of which it would be difficult 

 to trace. Now, what might arife from the influ- 

 ence of one fpecies on another, may be produced 

 with greater eafe in the fame fpecies. If vigo- 

 rous females be constantly ferved with feeble 

 males, in procefs of time, a feminine race will 

 be eftablifhed ; and, if very ftrong males are ap- 

 propriated to females of inferior Strength and 

 vigour, a mafculine race will be the refult, lb 

 different in appearance from the firft, that we 

 could not alTign to them a common origin, and, 

 of courfe, would regard them as two diftinct 

 fpecies. 



To thefe general reflections, we mall add fome 

 particular facts. We are allured by Linnaeus *, 



A a 2 thai 



* Capra cornibus depreffis, incurvis, minimis, cranio in- 

 eumbentibus, gula barbata. Magnitudo haedi hiici : Piii 

 longi, penduli ; cornua lunata, cralTa, vix d : oitum longa, cranio 

 adprefla ut fere cutem perforent : Habitat in America. Lin 

 naeus, I fufped, has not been properly infrymed wub regard 

 to the country of this animal, and I believe it to be a native 

 ©f Africa. My reafons are, i. That no author mentions 



. 



