Chap. L THEIR PARENTAGE 23 



grey wolf." He could, in fact, detect no marked difference 

 between them ; and Messrs. Nott and Gliddon give additional 

 details showing their close resemblance. The dogs derived from 

 the above two aboriginal sources cross together and with the 

 wild wolves, at least with the C. occidentalis, and with European 

 dogs. In Florida, according to Bartram, the black wolf-dog 

 of the Indians differs in nothing from the wolves of that 

 country except in barking. 15 



Turning to the southern parts of the new world, Columbus 

 found two kinds of dogs in the West Indies ; and Fernandez 16 

 describes three in Mexico : some of these native dogs were 

 dumb — that is, did not bark. In Guiana it has been known 

 since the time of Buffon that the natives cross their dogs 

 with an aboriginal species, apparently the Canis cancrivorus. 

 Sir E. Schomburgk, who has so carefully explored these 

 regions, writes to me, " I have been repeatedly told by the 

 Arawaak Indians, who reside near the coast, that they cross 

 their dogs with a wild species to improve the breed, and 

 individual dogs have been shown to me which certainly 

 resembled the C. cancrivorus much more than the common 

 breed. It is but seldom that the Indians keep the C. cancri- 

 vorus for domestic purposes, nor is the Ai, another species 

 of wild dog, and which I consider to be identical with the 

 Dusicyon silvestris of H. Smith, now much used by the Are- 

 cunas for the purpose of hunting. The dogs of the Taruma 

 Indians are quite distinct, and resemble Buffon's St. Domingo 

 greyhound." It thus appears that the natives of Guiana have 

 partially domesticated two aboriginal species, and still cross 

 their dogs with them ; these two species belong to a quite dif- 

 ferent type from the North American and European wolves. A 



15 'Fauna Boreali-Americana,' vol. ii. p. 218), says that the Indian 



1829, pp. 73, 78, 80. Nott and dog of the Spokans, near the Rocky 



Gliddon, ' Types of Mankind,' p. 383. Mountains, " is beyond all question 



The naturalist and traveller Bartram nothing more than a tamed Cayote or 



is quoted by Hamilton Smith, in ' Na- prairie-wolf," or Canis latrans. 

 turalist Lib.,' vol. x. p. 156. A Mexican 16 I quote this from Mr. R. Hill's 



domestic dog seems also to resemble a excellent account of the Alco or 



wild dog of the same country ; but domestic dog of Mexico, ia Gosse'a 



this may be the prairie-wolf. Another ' Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica, 



capable judge, Mr. J. K. Lord ('The 1851, p. 329. 

 Naturalist in Vancouver Island,' 1866, 



