84 INTRODUCTION. 
Australia; there is, besides, a half reclaimed race 
among the Indians of North America, and another 
partially tamed in South America, which deserve 
attention ; and it is found that these races, in diffe- 
rent degrees, and in a greater degree as they are 
more wild, exhibit the lank and gaunt form, the 
lengthened limbs, the long and slender muzzle, and 
the great comparative strength which characterise 
the wolf; and that the tail of the Australian dog, 
which may be considered as the most remote from 
a state of domestication, assumes the slightly bushy 
form of that animal. We have here, then, a con- 
siderable approximation to a well known wild 
animal of the same genus, in races which, though 
doubtless descended from domesticated ancestors, 
have gradually assumed the wild condition; and it 
is worthy of especial remark, that the anatomy of 
the wolf, and its osteology in particular, does not 
differ from that of dogs in general, more than the 
different kind of dogs do from each other. The 
cranium is absolutely similar, and so are all or 
nearly all the other essential parts ; and to strengthen 
still further the probability of their identity, the 
dog and wolf will readily breed together, and their 
progeny is fertile. The obliquity of the position of 
the eyes in the wolf, is one of the characters in 
which it differs from the dogs; and although it is 
very desirable not to rest too much upon the effects 
of habit or structure, it is not perhaps straining the 
point to attribute the forward direction of the eyes 
in. the dogs, to the constant habit, for many succes- 
