490 



CHAINS OF CIRCUMSTANCE 



in the other, the Roe, there are suspicions of a reduction. 

 The limb bones of the Mountain or Variable Hare found 

 in the Neolithic deposits of the Inchnadamph Bone Cave 

 are considerably larger than the corresponding bones of a 

 modern individual. The limb bones of a Wild Cat which I 

 examined from the settlements at Dunagoil in Bute showed 

 that the length of limb was considerably greater than that 

 of a modern Wild Cat, which again is larger than that of 

 the domestic race 1 . Indeed the thigh bone (femur) resembled 

 in length that of a modern Fox. A single hint suggests 

 that this latter creature, too, may have been greater in 

 former days, for one of the few records from prehistoric 

 Scotland is that of "a very large fox" found in the "harbour- 

 mound" at Keiss. Remains of the British Brown Bear also 

 indicate proportions greater than those of its modern re- 

 presentatives on the Continent, a fact which Dr J. A. Smith 

 attributed to the greater abundance of food in prehistoric 

 days and to the greater age probably reached by in- 

 dividuals. 



More directly man has played upon the physical charac- 

 ters, and temperament as well, of the creatures he has tamed 

 for his own uses. By selecting the animals best suited for 

 his purposes, by using only such animals to perpetuate the 

 race, and by interbreeding the best blood with the selected 

 animals of other lands, the descendants perhaps of a different 

 wild race, he has lengthened the wool of Sheep and bleached 

 its colour, he has increased the bodies and banished the 

 horns of Cattle, he has evolved the strength of the Clydes- 

 dale and the Shire, he has trained dogs to hunt by sight, 

 or by scent, and so on. In a hundred ways he has altered 



1 The following table indicates these differences : 



