16 



DOGS. 



Chap. r. 



later tertiary deposits more like tliose of a large dog than of 

 a wolf, which favours the belief of De Blainville that our dogs 

 are the descendants of a single extinct species. On the other 

 hand, some authors go so far as to assert that every chief 

 domestic breed must have had its wild prototype. This latter 

 view is extremely improbable ; it allows nothing for variation ; 

 it passes over the almost monstrous character of some of the 

 breeds ; and it almost necessarily assumes, that a large number 

 of species have become extinct since man domesticated the dog ; 

 whereas we plainly see that the members of the dog-family are 

 extirpated by human agency with much difficulty ; even so 

 recently as 1710 the wolf existed in so small an island as 

 Ireland. 



The reasons which have led various authors to infer that our 

 dogs have descended from more than one wild species are as 

 follows. 2 Firstly, the great difference between the several 

 breeds ; but this will appear of comparatively little weight, after 

 we shall have seen how great are the differences between the 

 several races of various domesticated animals which certainly 

 have descended from a single parent-form. Secondly, the more 

 important fact that, at the most anciently known historical 

 periods, several breeds of the dog existed, very unlike each other, 

 and closely resembling or identical with breeds still alive. 



We will briefly run back through the historical records. The 

 materials are remarkably deficient between the fourteenth 

 century and the Eoman classical period. 3 At this earlier period 



2 Pallas, I believe, originated this 

 doctrine in 'Act. Acad. St. Petersburgh,' 

 1780, Part ii. Ehrenberg has advo- 

 cated it, as may be seen in De Blain- 

 ville's ' Osteographie,' p. 79. It has 

 been carried to an extreme extent by 

 Col. Hamilton Smith in the ' Naturalist 

 Library,' vol. ix. and x. Mr. W. C. 

 Martin adopts it in his excellent ' History 

 of the Dog,' 1845 ; as does Dr. Morton, 

 as well as Nott and Gliddon, in the 

 United States. Prof. Low, in his 

 'Domesticated Animals,' 1845, p. 666, 

 comes to this same conclusion. No one 

 has argued on this side with more 

 clearness and force than the late James 

 Wilson, of Edinburgh, in various papers 



read before the Highland Agricultural 

 and Wernerian Societies. Isidore 

 Geoffroy Saint Hilaire ('Hist. Nat. 

 Gen.,' 1860, torn. iii. p. 107), though he 

 believes that most dogs have descended 

 from the jackal, yet inclines to the belief 

 that some are descended from the wolf. 

 Prof. Gervais (' Hist. Nat. Mamm.' 

 1855, torn. ii. p. 69, referring to the 

 view that all the domestic races are the 

 modified descendants of a single species, 

 after a long discussion, says, "Cette 

 opinion est, suivant nous du moins, la 

 moins probable." 



3 Berjeau, ' The Varieties of the Dog ; 

 in old Sculptures and Pictures," 1863. 

 ' Der Hund/ von Dr. F. L. Walther, 



