ei 



OKPER V. THE CAItXIVORA. 53 



tlian liy tlio luitliority of names. We know it to Ijc tlic opinion of foresters 

 and huntsmen of tlie north and cast of Eurojie, men generally well edu- 

 cated, who live wholly in the presence of Nature. We arc assured it is the 

 doctrine of the Ciiincse and Tartars, particularlv in the notice on dogs in 

 the treatise on hunting, under the names of Id, 1st, and Kuschuk. A\'e 

 know, from personal in([uir_y, that both the North and South ^Vmericau 

 Indians do not douht their dogs lieing of the same origin with the wild 

 canines of their forests; and, lastly, we may point to the text of Baron 

 Cuvier, where, bearing in mind that he made it a law not to assert as fact 

 that which lie had not verified by personal inspection. Speaking of dogs 

 as ii species, he nevertheless admits that ' some naturalists think that the 

 dog is a wolf, others that he is an educated jackal : dogs, however, winch 

 have become wild, resemble neither the one nor the other.' lie then 

 notices the Matin, a breed not known in England, but approaching our 

 reat Farm-yard ;uid Drover l>ogs, as possessing a sktdl most similar to 

 that of the wolf, though the ears are dro(jj)ing. Farther on, speaking of 

 the jackal, he says, ' It is a voracious animal, which hunts after the manner 

 of dogs, and appears to resemble them more than any other species, both iu 

 form and susceptibility of education.' 



" In conclusion wc may asstime, that man being created for higher pur- 

 poses than a mere animal existence, subordinate creatiu-es, so constituted 

 as to bo important elements of coiiperatiDU, were called into existence to 

 further that design, and to facilitate his intellectual advancement. Among 

 others, the canines were endowed with facidtics of a peculiar nature in aid 

 of his exertions, and in compensation for the physii'al inadcrpiacy of his 

 structure, to compete with the fiercer tenants of the world. How the brute 

 creation was at first distributed, we never can ascertain ; but we may con- 

 jeeturc, judging from that balance which wc may trace is kept u]i iu 

 organized matter, vegetable as well as animal, that all the classes and 

 orders must have been coexisting from the beginning iu such proportions 

 that none had so decided a preponderance in either kingdom of natiu-e as to 

 outweigh and destroy others, or even to exceed their iisiful quantity. And 

 here again we find an exception ; for to man alone it was given, in proof of 

 his higher destinies, to violate this law for his convenience ; to diminish, to 

 exterminate whole species of animals, clear whole regions of forests, bani>h 

 whole classes of plants, and supply their places by nniltiplying those crea- 

 tures and that vegetation necessary to his own comfort, and converting a 

 wilderness into cidtivated regions for his liencfit, without disturbing the 

 harmony of the creation ; unless in the din-ation of ages, and in oljcdience 

 to other laws, whose periods of operation we arc not competent to measure." 



