-. MAMMALIA, To 
[24.] 3. Canis Famiiaris. (Linn.) Domestic Dog. 
Canis F. var. A. BoreaLis. (Desmarest.) Hsquimaux Dog. 
Canis familiaris var. N. borealis. Drsmarest. Mamm., p. 194. 
Eskimaux Dog. Caprarin Lyon’s Private Journal, p. 332. 244. 
Icones*, Parry’s Second Voyage, p. 290 and 388. 
The great resemblance which the Domestic Dogs of the aboriginal tribes of 
America bear to the wolves of the same country, was remarked by the earliest 
settlers from Europe f, and has induced some naturalists of much observation to 
consider them to be merely half-tamed wolves{. Without entering at all into the 
question of the origin of the Domestic Dog, I may state that the resemblance 
between the wolves and the dogs of those Indian nations, who still preserve their 
ancient mode of life, continues to be very remarkable, and it is nowhere more so, 
than at the very northern extremity.of the Continent, the Esquimaux dogs being 
not only extremely like the gray wolves of the Arctic circle, in form and colour, but 
also nearly equalling them in size. The dog has generally a shorter tail than the 
wolf, and carries it more frequently curled over the hip, but the latter practice is not 
totally unknown to the wolf, although that animal, when under the observation of 
man, being generally apprehensive of danger or on the watch, seldom displays this 
mark of satisfaction. I have, however, seen a family of wolves playing together, 
occasionally carry their tails curled upwards. 
In the Museum of the Zoological Society there is a specimen of an Esquimaux 
dog, which was brought originally from Baflin’s Bay by Captain Ross’s expedition, 
and which was afterwards the faithful attendant of Captain Parry’s crews during 
the memorable winter of 1819, which they passed on Melville Island. The great 
likeness of this specimen to a gray wolf from Carlton House, preserved in the same 
case, must be obvious to every one who has seen them, although their birth-places 
lie upwards of twenty degrees of latitude apart, and they are, therefore, not so 
favourable examples to shew the resemblance as if they had been natives of the 
same district. 
- * In L’Hist. Nat. des Mammiferes, there is a plate and description of a supposed Esquimaux Dog, a present to the 
Jardin du Roi ; but Capt. Sabine informs us that it is a cross between a real Esquimaux bitch and a Newfoundland 
dog.— Appendix, Parry's First Voyage, p. xxxvi. + Smitu, Virginia ¢t Kau. 
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