94 Anecdotal Natural History. 



reason. The claws, which in the cats are of such 

 service in the capture of prey, are in the dogs of 

 comparatively little use for this purpose, being short, 

 blunt, and non-retractile. 



That there must be some original type of the dog is 

 self-evident, though it is almost, if not quite impossible 

 to ascertain with any precision what that type may 

 be. 



There is no similar difficulty about the wolves, foxes, 

 and other members of the dog tribe, because they live a 

 wild life, and so can preserve their own typical 

 character. But the very nature of the dog compels it to 

 withdraw itself from a wild life, and attach itself to man. 

 More or less it becomes his companion, and does his 

 work, and it is therefore necessarily modified according 

 to the race, the climate, and the domestic economy of 

 the human beings with whom it associates itself. 



Take the cities of the East. 



There we have the dog, not quite, but nearly wild, 

 doing the work of man, by acting as scavenger, and 

 so enabling man to live. 



Take the semi-nomad North American Indian, who 

 lives in tents, but remains for months, and sometimes 

 for years, in the same locality. He is a warrior and 

 hunter, and nothing else, utterly despising work, and, 

 even if he does grow a crop of mai/e, delegating all 

 the work to the women. 



With him the dog becomes the guardian of the 

 temporary village. He knows every inhabitant, and 

 allows no stranger to enter unless accompanied by one 

 of the warriors. 



Go further north, and take the Esquimaux, an 

 aggregation of equally nomad tribes, but inhabiting a 

 region of almost perpetual snow and ice. Here the dog 

 becomes the beast of burden and traction. He can have 

 no roof to cover him, for his masters are themselves 



