189 



Sect. VL Quadrupeds, -r-l have already estimat- 

 ed the number of quadrupeds in Chili at thirty-six 

 species, without including those that have been im- 

 ported. I have even excepted the hog and the dog, 

 although I do not consider them as proceeding from 

 a European stock, as the proper names which they 

 both have in the Chilian language distinguish them 

 from foreign animals. Even Acosta, who wrote 

 shortly after the conquest, does not venture to give a 

 decisive opinion respecting the origin of the domestic 

 hog of Peru. The hog of Chili, called by the In- 

 dmns chanchu, is similar in its appearance to that of 

 Europe ; it is full as large, and generally Vvhite, in 

 which respect it differs from that of Peru, which is 

 always black. 



As to the dog, without pretending that all the 

 kinds at present found in the country were there be- 

 fore the arrival of the Spaniards, I have reason to 

 believe that the little barbet, called kiltho, and the 

 common dog, thegua in Chilian, the breeds of which 

 are found in all parts of America, as far as Cape Horn, 

 were known in Chili before that period. These dogs, 

 it is true, bark like those of Europe, but this is not 

 a conclusive reason for supposing them to be derived 

 from that race. The general opinion that the Ameri- 

 can dog is dumb, has unquestionably arisen from 

 the circumstance of the first conquerors having given 

 s^imilar names to those animals of the new world 

 which bore some resemblance to those of the old. 

 This is confirmed by the learned Abbé Clavigero, 

 who, in his history of Mexico, says that the first 

 Spaniards who came to that country gave the name 



