108 INTRODUCTION. 
see how or why a difficulty should be overcome, 
which in itself seems to lie more in the maxims of 
a system than in an invariable law of nature. 
Before we close the introductory view of the 
origin of dogs, it is proper to notice in a few words 
the fossil canines. Of these only one questionable 
species is, we believe, indicated in the older or 
deeper strata of ossiferous caverns; one that must 
have been adequate to walk the earth at a period 
when colossal forms of various kinds abounded. It 
is noticed by Kaup under the name of aynotherium, 
and stated by him to have been in size equal to a 
lion. It is doubtful whether a true diurnal canine 
of the existing zoological forms has yet been de- 
tected in the same assemblages of bones where the 
fossil hyena is found mixed with so many others. 
One, considered to be of a wolf, we examined in the 
collection taken from the cave near Torquay, but 
the Rev. Mr M‘Ennery stated that it was discovered 
on the surface of the stalagmite which covered the 
deeper hyzena deposit, and lay on the same floor 
with flint knives. Whether domestic dogs have 
ever been found in a fossil state, is still more ques- 
tionable. The Canis speleus of Goldfuss, found in 
the cavern of Gailenreuth, we know not under what 
conditions, has the muzzle shorter and the palate 
wider than the present wolf, and may be the most 
ancient representative of the family, which even in 
that case may not have preceded the first hunters or 
the later shepherds who migrated from high Asia 
westward ; for goats and sheep are equally wanting 
