671 



of his researches on the figures and characters 

 that cover the rocks of Uruana. It was in the 

 countries we had just passed through, between 

 the Meta, the Arauca, and the Apure, that, at 

 the time of the first expeditions to the Oroono- 

 ko, for instance that of Alonzo de Herera, in 

 1535, mute dogs were found, called by the na- 

 tives maios, and auries*. This fact is curious in 

 many points of view. We cannot doubt that 

 the dog, whatever father Gili may assert, is in- 

 digenous in South America. The different Indian 

 languages furnish words to designate this ani- 

 mal, which are scarcely derived from any Euro- 

 pean tongue. To this day the word auri, men- 

 tioned three hundred years ago by Alonzo de 

 Herera, is found in the Maypure-}-. The dogs 

 we saw at the Oroonoko may perhaps have des- 

 cended from those, that the Spaniards carried to 

 the coast of Caraccas ; but it is not less certain, 

 that there existed a race of dogs before the con- 

 quest in Peru, in New Grenada, and in Guyana, 

 resembling our shepherds' dogs. The allco of 

 the natives of Peru, and in general all the dogs 

 that we found in the wildest countries of South 

 America, bark frequently. The first historians 

 however all speak of mute dogs (perros mudos) ; 

 they still exist in Canada ; and, what appears to 



* Herera, Decad. V, vol. iii, p. 212. 

 t GiU, vol ii, p. 378. 



