250 On the different Animals known as wild Asses. [No. 3. 



One male, of great celebrity, sold for 5,000 dollars, upwards of 

 £1,000 sterling. A balf share of another male was sold for 2,500 

 dollars. At the shew I asked the price of a very beautiful female 

 Ass, only one year old ; the owner said that he could have 1000 

 dollars for her, but that he had refused that sum. For a three year 

 old male, shewn during the exhibition, 3,000 dollars (more than 

 £600) were refused. The fact is that mule-breeding is so lucrative, 

 that there is no price which a very large Donkey will not command." 

 With reference to the current statement, that the Ass nowhere 

 thrives in a cold climate, it should be remembered that these 

 animals are numerous in Pekin ; and that some at least of the 

 Chinese Donkeys are fine animals, may be inferred from Dr. Hooker's 

 remark about the Tibetan mules, which, he says, are often as fine as 

 the Spauish. He "rode one, which had performed a journey from 

 Choombi to Lhassa in fifteen days with a man and load." Never- 

 theless, as a general rule and irrespective of recent introductions, the 

 finest Asses chiefly inhabit Arabia and the Levantine countries, and 

 the most degenerate are the puny cat-hammed Guddhas of India 

 generally. As Col. Sykes remarks, some of these are scarcely 

 larger than a fine Newfoundland Dog ; but on what ground Col. C. 

 H. Smith supposed this to be a wild race inhabiting the Dukhun,* 

 it is difficult to imagine. There are small Asses also in Persia, as 

 about Ispahan, what Chardiu (as we have seen) denominated the 

 race proper to the country ; while he mentions that many of the 

 large kind are imported into Persia from Arabia. It is curious that 

 Aristotle states, that in his time there were no Asses in Pontus, 

 Syria, or in the country of the Celts (meaning modern Germany and 

 Prance) ; Syria being now so celebrated for the excellence of its breed 

 of them. For many ages previously they are known to have existed in 

 Egypt and Arabia. In short, there seems to be no evidence whatever 

 to bear out the current notion that the domestic Ass originated in 

 northern x\sia ; but, on the contrary, every reason to infer that it 

 originated in the region where the particular species is still found 

 wild, and where also the finest and least altered of the domestic 

 races prevail to this day ; and that the fact should not have been 

 long ago established, is surely somewhat remarkable. 

 * Nat. Libr. Mammalia, Vol. XII, 306. 



