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canines are not large enough for a Wolf. I would, therefore, 
say your specimen is the skull of a Dog, of a Wolfish aspect. 
I have studied the subject a good deal, and made instructive 
collections, and have Wolves' skulls of many ages as well as 
Dogs of various breeds, and several of both species from the 
bogs. I have pot yet got any skull of a Dog so large as I 
should suppose our great Irish Dogs possessed; I rather 
imagine these animals were at all times rare, and, probably, the 
property of great men. If they at all exist at present, they 
are probably in the mountains of the north of Africa, where 
is to be found a Dog possessed of the proportions ascribed 
to our ancient animal ; and knowing from other circumstances 
that some intercourse existed in remote ages between the north 
of Africa and Ireland, hence I am led to believe came the 
great Dog in question. 
Truly yours, 
K. BALL. 
In conclusions I would observe, it is not a little remarkable 
that of the animals which man has rendered subservient to 
his use, few remains occur in a fossil state. The Ox, Swine, 
Goat, and the Horse, are, I believe, the only examples ; 
while those of the Dog and Sheep, which are and have been 
more immediately associated with his various migrations, 
are either unknown or doubtful. Can this arise from the 
supposed greater antiquity of the former animals, or that 
the latter are altered by domestication from other animals, 
as the Dog from the Wolf, or the Sheep from the Argali, 
or some other untamed species of Sheep? The former 
point is a geological problem which it is very difficult to 
solve, as the life periods of some of these animals is so inter- 
woven with that of others of supposed remote date, and long 
since extinct. The latter is also an obscure page of past history, 
which, however, is not so beset with conflicting evidence. 
That the Dog, as a species, has existed from the earliest period 
of man's history is evident, as the monuments of Egypt 
