62 



FIRST CLASS OF THE VERTEBRATED ANIMALS. 



diminiahed. their numbers considerably, yet we are informed by Oviedo, that within 

 twenty-seven years from the discovery of St Domingo, herds of 4000 head of Cattle 

 might frequently be encountered, and that there were even some containing at least 

 8000. In the year 1587, the number of hides exported from this island alone 

 amounted to 33,444, while 64,340 appear to have issued from the ports of New 

 Spain. This was the sixty-fifth year after the capture of Mexico, before which event 

 the Spaniards were entirely occupied in warfare, and it strikingly evinces the extreme 

 rapidity with which these animals will increase their numbers when placed under fa- 

 vorable circumstances. 



While the Cattle were in small numbers, and grouped around the habitations of 

 their masters, they succeeded equally well almost every where ; but as soon as their 

 numbers became greatly iacreased, it was discovered that in certain districts they 

 could not exist without the assistance of Man. Unless they were able to find a cer- 

 tain quantity of Salt, either in the substance of the plants which formed their food, 

 or in the streams which in some districts acquire a brackish taste frdm the saline 

 particles contained in the soil, it was found to be absolutely necessary to furnish it 

 to them directly. If this precaution were not attended to, they became stunted and 

 poor ; many of the females ceased to be fruitful, and the herds rapidly disappeared. 

 Even in those districts where the Cattle can exist without this assistance, it has 

 been found advantageous to distribute salt at stated intervals to the herd. This is 

 one principal means of attaching them to a particular spot ; and so great is the avidity 

 with which they take this substance, after being for some time deprived of it, that 

 when it has been distributed to them two or three times at the same place, they are 

 seen running from all quarters to the spot as soon as they hear the horns which the 

 herdsmen sound before making the distribution. 



If, hov;ever, the country yields a sufficient supply of salt, and if the herdsmen 

 neglect to assemble the Cattle from time to time, they become in a very few years 

 wholly wild. This has happened at two places to M. Roulin's knowledge, the one in 

 the province of San Martin, in a property belonging to the Jesuits, at the time when 

 this religious order was expelled, the other in the province of Mariquita at Paramo 

 de Santa Isabel, in consequence of the abandonment of some works where the natives 

 washed for Gold. In the latter place, the Cattle have not remained in the districts 

 where they were originally placed, but have mounted the heights of the Cordilleras 

 to seek the region of the Grasses, and there live in a temperature almost uniform of 

 48*^ to 50^* Fahrenheit. To this spot the peasants of the villages Mendez, Piedras, 

 and some others situate in the plains, sometimes come to hunt them. They drive 

 with knotted cords small divisions of the herd towards the places where snares have 

 been previously prepared. "Whenever Ihey obtain possession of one of these animals, 

 it is often iinpossible to conduct it alive from among the mountains. This does not 

 arise from the resistance which the captive makes, for after a little time its violence 

 begins to diminish ; but when the animal begins to perceive the futiUty of its efforts 

 to escape, it is often seized with so great a tremor over the whole body, that it falls 

 to the ground ; to make it rise becomes impossible, and it dies in a few hours. The 

 want of salt to preserve the meat, the distance from any inhabited district, and the 

 difl&cult. nature of the roads, prevent tha hunters from deriving any other advantage 

 from the slain animal than the portion which they can consume upon the spot. These 

 disailvantages render the hunting of wild Cattle by no means frequent ; and the hunters 

 always run the risk of being surprised by the snow, which often falls in these ele- 

 vated regions. When the snow lasts many days, these unfortunate men, accustomed 

 to the continual warmth of the adjoining valleys, are sure to perish. If, how- 

 ever, they ai'e so fortunate as to bring one of these animals from the mountains, it is 

 not difficult to tame; this is effected by confining it near to the farm, by supplying it 

 regularly with salt, and habituating it to the sight of Men. M. Ruulin never had 

 an opportunity of seeing one of these animals alive, but he tasted the flesh of a wild 

 Calf which had been killed on the evening of his arrival. Its flavour did not in any 

 respect differ from that of the common domestic Calf ; the hide was remarkably 

 thick, in other respects of the usual size; the hair was long, thick, and rough. In 

 the province of San Martin he, however, saw a wild Bull of a chestnut colour, pas- 

 turing in the Llanos in the midst of the domestic cattle. The Wild Bulls pass the 

 morning in the woods which cover the base of the Cordilleras, and do not appear in 

 the Savannah until about two hours after noon, when they come out to feed. As 

 soon as they perceive a Blan, they hasten to regain the forest at a full gallop. 



The hide of the Wild Bull does not appear to differ in any respect from that of the 

 domestic Cattle which inhabit the same districts. In both they are much heavier 

 than the hides of the Cattle brought up on the plateau of Bogota, and the latter 

 yield in this respect, as well as in respect to the thickness of their hair, to the wild 

 Cattle of Paramo de Santa Isabel. 



In the warmest parts of the provinces of Mariquita and Neyba, there are some 

 herds of horned Cattle with their hair extremely scanty and fine ; they are given, by 

 antiphrasis, the epithet of Peloites. This variety is transmitted to their descendants, 

 but no care is taken to preserve the breed, as the Pelones are unable to bear the 

 cold of the elevated regions of the Cordilleras, where the cattle intended for con- 

 sumption or exportation must remain for some time to fatten. There is also another 

 variety of Cattle in this district called CahmgoSf having the skin entirely naked like 

 the Barbary Dog. As these animals are more feeble and delicate, it is usual to kill 

 them before they are old enough for breeding. These never appear in the cold districts. 

 In Europe, where the milk of the Cow forms a very important article of rural 

 economy, it is usual to milk her continually from the moment of the birth of her first 

 Calf until she ceases to be fertile. This practice, continually repeated upon all these 

 animals for a long series of generations, has had the effect of producing permanent 

 alterations in the species. The udders have acquired aii extraordinary size, and the 

 milk continues to be secreted even after the Calf has been removed. In Columbia, 

 however, the introduction of a new rural system, the abundance of cattle in propor- 

 tion to the number of inhabitants, their dispersion in pastures of very great extent, 

 and a number of other circumstances which need not here be detailed, have counter- 

 actiid this effect of domestication. The organization and function of the udder soon 

 resume their original state when freed from the long-continued influence of habit. 

 At present if a Cow of Columbia be mtended to yield milk for the dairy, the first 



care must be to preserve the Calf; it is allowed to remain along with its mother fbr 

 the entire day, during which she is permitted to suckle it. They can be separated 

 only at night, and the milk secreted during the interval of their separation alone 

 becomes available for economical purposes, and accordingly it is abstracted every 

 morning. If the Calf happen to die, the secretion of the milk is immediately stopped. 



In America, the Cat has scarcely undergone any alteraiion, except in its having 

 no period of the year corresponding to the rutting season. This peculiarity, which 

 might naturally be expected in a chmate always equal, exists also with the Hog, the 

 Bull, the Horse, the Ass, and the Dog. Although Kids and Lambs are bom all 

 the year round, yet there are two periods of the year, Christmas and Whitsunday, 

 when the number of births is greatly increased. 



These particulars, furnished by M, Roulin, though necessarily defective on many 

 interesting points, enable us to draw several important conclusions, which serve to 

 throw a light upon the past history of our domestic animals, and directly also upon the 

 philosophy of species in Zoology. However, the extreme difficulty of distinguishing 

 those phenomena which are due solely to domestication from those belonging to food, 

 climate, and situation, lead us naturally to inquire whether the records of ancient 

 History can yield us any information regarding the progress of variation among 

 our domestic animals. If we can discover in these writings any traces of their gradual 

 deviation from the form of the wild races, we have an additional evidence in support 

 of those views which have here been laid down. 



Unfortunately the notices of the domestic animals in the writings of the ancients 

 are neither numerous nor full ; yet however scanty, they possess a peculiar interest 

 and importance. It is true that we find those civil and military events which attend 

 the rise and fall of great Empires, or the establishment of different religions, and other 

 historical events concerning the Human Race, recorded with a scrupulous attention; 

 but the ancients may be said to have wholly neglected the minor histories of the farm- 

 yard and stable. The gradual modifications of their domestic animals presented none 

 of those brilliant events and striking positions which compose the ordinary pages of 

 history, but, moving onwards with a silent and almost insensible step, they escaped 

 the notice of their contemporaries. Man, on becoming civilized, soon forgot, with char- 

 acteristical ingratitude, those early companions of his labours, without whose aid his own 

 progress might have been indefinitely retarded. It is only now by examining the 

 aggregate of their changes through a long course of years, that we are led to perceive 

 the exient of their modifications, and can fully appreciate the importance of their con- 

 tributions towards the wealth and happiness of society. 



Modern Naturalists have commonly supposed that the native country of our domes- 

 tic Mammalia cannot be ascertained; yet it would appear that these animals were all 

 living in a wild state in Europe at the time of Aristotle, This great NaturaHst 

 himself attests the fact, and mentions the Horse, Bull, Hog, Sheep, Goat, and 

 Dog, as familiar instances. We are also informed by Pliny, after havino- alluded to 

 the intercourse between domestic Pigs and the wild Boar, that there were no domesti- 

 cated animals in his time, which could not also be found in a wild state. (In omnibu? 

 animalibus placidum ejusdem invenitur et ferura). 



The concordance of these two passages is striking, and they prove that in the 450 

 years which elapsed from the time of Aristotle to that of Piiny, the domestic animals 

 had not been widely distributed over the globe, nor had they undergone much varia- 

 tion. Indeed, as long as wild animals reside in the immediate vicinity of the tame 

 herds, it is certain that the domestication of the latter will be exceedingly imperfect. 

 The continual intercourse of the wild with the tame animals, and the contagious 

 example of herds running wild in neighbouring mountains and deserts, must have 

 diverted the captive animals from those domestic habits to which the restraints of 

 Man would otherwise have reduced them. In this respect, the partially domesticated 

 races would have resembled those Indians of the United States of America, which are 

 taken from their tribes during their infancy, and educated in the midst of towns, 

 both in the rehgion and manners of the Europeans. At the age of twenty or thirty 

 years, if they happen to encounter in the woods a tribe of Hunters of their own 

 nation, so hereditary are their propensities, that they at once reject their former 

 peaceable life, with all its advantages, moral and intellectual, and plunge without re- 

 flection into the savage and adventurous life of their ancestors. 



Varro appears to confirm the opinion of the Greek and Oriental Philosophers, that 

 the Sheep, in consequence of its superior docility and mildness, was the first animal 

 which became domesticated. " The Sheep," says he, *' is not only of a very peaceful 

 nature, but it is the animal most fitted to supply the wants of Man, since it yields 

 not only milk and cheese for food, but also its wool and skin for clothing." *' In 

 several countries," continues Varro, '* there still exist in the wild state some of the 

 animals which we have rendered domestic. In Phrygia and Lycaonia, many flocks 

 of Wild Sheep are to be found. The Wild Goat exists in Samothrace, and there are 

 several in Italy, in the mountains adjoining Fiscellum (now Jlonte della Sibilla, near 

 Abbruzo), and Tetrica (near the most elevated point of the Appenines in the Upper 

 March of Ancona). In respect to the Hog, every one knows that he is descended 

 from the Boar, which is found wild in all countries. There are still a great number 

 of Wild Bulls in Dai'dania, Mysia, and Thrace ; there are Wild Asses in Phrygia and 

 in Lycaonia, and Wild Horses in some parts of Hither Spain." (Re Rustic, II, I, 

 4-6). 



This passage of Varro fully corroborates the testimonies of Aristotle and Pliny, 

 and his evidence is important, as we know that Varro himself travelled through all 

 the countries where he places these wild animals. Modern researches have verified 

 a part of Varro's declaration, and recognize the original localities of the Ass. These 

 are the mountains of Taurus and lower Curdistan, separating Persia from Afghanistan, 

 Here it still exists in the wild state, and the pursuit of this Solipede has long beea 

 one of the chief amusements of the Persian Kings. 



Buffon and other modern Naturahsts differ in opinion from Varro and the Oriental 

 Philosophers, regarding the priority of domestication with the Sheep. The Dog, 

 according to Buffon, was the first animal which Man acquired for his use ; and it 

 was by the assistance of this animal that he was able to seize and subdue all the other 

 species necessary to supply the wants of an infant society. This opinion rests chiefly 

 upon the extreme facility with which wild animals of the Dog Genus are tamed, arising 



