130 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
which these animals form among themselves, and that they 
are only distinguished in the general mass by the autho- 
rity which they have been enabled to assume from their 
superiority of intellect. Thus, every social animal which 
recognizes man as a member, and as the chief of its herd, 
is a domestic animal. It might even be said that from the 
moment when such an animal admits man as a member of 
its society, it is domesticated, as man could not enter into 
such a society without becoming the chief of it.” 
But the ingenious author whose observations we have 
here cited, admits that the obedience which the individuals 
of many domestic species yield indifferently to every per- 
son is without analogy in any state of things which could 
exist previously to their subjugation by man. Each troop 
of wild horses, it is true, has some stallion for its chief, 
wdio draws after him all the individuals of which the herd 
is composed; but when a domesticated horse has passed 
from hand to hand, and has served several masters, he 
becomes equally docile towards any person , and is sub- 
jected to the whole human race. It seems fair to presume, 
that the capability in the instinct of the horse to be thus 
modified, was given to enable the species to render greater 
services to man, and, perhaps, the facility with which 
many other acquired characters become hereditary in va- 
rious races of the horse, may be explicable only on a like 
supposition. The amble, for example, a pace to which 
the domestic racers in Spanish America are exclusively 
trained, has, in the course of several generations, become 
hereditary, and is assumed by all the young colts before 
they are broken in. 
It seems also reasonable to conclude, that the power be- 
stowed on the horse, the dog, the ox, the sheep, the cat, 
and many species of domestic fowls, of supporting almost 
every climate, was given expressly to enable them to fol- 
low man throughout all parts of the globe — in order that 
we might obtain their services, and they our protection. 
If it be objected that the elephant, which, by the union of 
strength, intelligence, and docility, can render the great- 
est services to mankind, is incapable of living in any but 
the warmest latitudes, we may observe, that the quantity 
of vegetable food required by this quadruped would render 
its maintenance, in the temperate zone, too costly, and in 
the arctic impossible. 
Among the changes superinduced by man, none appear, 
at first sight, more remarkable than the perfect tameness 
of certain domestic races. It is well known, that at how- 
ever early an age we obtain possession of the young of 
many unreclaimed races, they will retain, throughout life, 
a considerable timidity and apprehensiveness of danger; 
whereas, after one or two generations, the descendants of 
the same will habitually place the most implicit confidence 
in man. There is good reason, however, to suspect that 
such changes are not without analogy in a state of nature, 
or, to speak more correctly, in situations where man has 
not interfered. 
Thus Dr. Richardson informs us, in his able history of 
the habits of North American animals, that ‘‘in the re- 
tired parts of the mountains, where the hunters had seldom 
penetrated, there is no difficulty in approaching the Rocky 
Mountain sheejii, which there exhibit the simplicity of 
character so remarkable in the domestic species, but 
where they have been often fired at, they are exceedingly 
wild, alarm their companions, on the approach of danger, 
by a hissing noise, and scale the rocks with a speed and 
agility that baffles pursuit.” 
It is probable, therefore, that as man, in diffusing him- 
self over the globe, has tamed many wild races, so also he 
has made many tame races wild. Had some of the larger 
carniverous beasts, capable of scaling the rocks, made their 
way into the North American mountains before our hun- 
ters, a similar alteration in the instincts of the sheep would 
doubtless have been brought about. » 
No animal affords a more striking illustration of the 
principal points we have been endeavouring to establish 
than the elephant. For in the first place, the wonderful 
sagacity with which he accommodates himself to the so- 
ciety of man, and the new habits which he contracts, are 
not the result of time nor of modifications produced in the 
course of many generations. These animals will breed in 
captivity, as is now ascertained, in opposition to the vul- 
gar opinion of many modern naturalists, and in confor- 
mity to that of the ancients iElian and Columella. Yet it 
has always been the custom, as the least expensive mode 
of obtaining them, to capture wild individuals in the 
forests, usually when full grown, and in a few years after 
they are taken, sometimes, it is said, in the space of a few 
months, their education is completed. — Ly ell’s Geology. 
MAHOGANY TREES. 
There are three species of Mahogany: — Common 
Mahogany, ( Swietenia Mahogani,) Swietenia febrifuga, 
and Swietenia chloroxylon; the first being a native of the 
West India Islands, and the central parts of America, and 
the second and third natives of the East Indies. They all 
grow to be trees of considerable magnitude — the first and 
second being among the largest trees known. They are 
all excellent timber. 
