UNCONSCIOUS SELECTION, 137 
were removed by judicious crosses and selection. The 
long, smooth wool was also correlated with smooth horns; 
and as horns and hair are homologous structures, we can 
understand the meaning of this correlation. If the 
Mauchamp and the ancon breeds had originated a cen- 
tury or two ago, we should have had no record of their 
birth, and many a naturalist would, no doubt, have 
insisted, especially in the case of the Mauchamp race, 
that they had each descended from or been crossed with 
some unknown aboriginal form.” 
If with the refined culture of races on large estates, 
we compare the slight attention bestowed on domestic 
animals in small peasant farms, remote from the cheering 
intercourse of the world, and then descend to the treat- 
ment by savages of their few domestic animals, or their 
sole tame creature, the dog, conscious artificial selection 
gradually decreases ; but wherever man attaches to his 
abode either plants or animals, selection is at least 
unconsciously exercised. The powerful animal, the par- 
ticular plant which yields the most abundant nutriment, 
are employed for propagation without any special fore- 
thought, and unconscious selection is thus undistinguish- 
able from that which is methodically practised. The 
initiation and progress of the production of races is 
naturally facilitated by the power of placing the animals 
selected for breeding, in a new environment and fresh 
conditions of life, and the formation of new races is 
favoured by the case with which it is possible to hinder 
the crossing of forms in course of construction, with races 
already existing. 
Unquestionably many races of domestic animals are 
not in a condition in which they can be termed new 
