Chap. I. UNCONSCIOUS SELECTION. 35 



doubt that this process, continued during centuries, 

 would improve and modify any breed, in the same way 

 as Bakewell, Collins, &c, by this very same process, 

 only carried on more methodically, did greatly modify, 

 even during their own lifetimes, the forms and qualities 

 of their cattle. Slow" and insensible changes of this 

 kind could never be recognised unless actual measure- 

 ments or careful drawings of the breeds in question 

 had been made long ago, which might serve for com- 

 parison. In some cases, however, unchanged or but 

 little changed individuals of the same breed may be found 

 in less civilised districts, where the breed has been less 

 improved. There is reason to believe that King Charles's 

 spaniel has been unconsciously modified to a large extent 

 since the time of that monarch. Some highly competent 

 authorities are convinced that the setter is directly derived 

 from the spaniel, and has probably been slowly altered 

 from it. It is known that the English pointer has been 

 greatly changed within the last century, and in this 

 case the change has, it is believed, been chiefly effected 

 by crosses with the fox-hound ; but what concerns us 

 is, that the change has been effected unconsciously and 

 gradually, and yet so effectually, that, though the old 

 Spanish pointer certainly came from Spain, Mr. Borrow 

 has not seen, as I am informed by him, any native dog 

 in Spain like our pointer. 



By a similar process of selection, and by careful train- 

 ing, the whole body of English racehorses have come to 

 surpass in fleetness and size the parent Arab stock, so 

 that the latter, by the regulations for the Goodwood Eaces, 

 are favoured in the weights they carry. Lord Spencer 

 and others have shown how the cattle of England have 

 increased in weight and in early maturity, compared with 

 the stock formerly kept in this country. By comparing 

 the accounts given in old pigeon treatises of carriers 



