NATURAL HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF DOGS. 
523 
French account of Canada (1636); and we may here observe, that 
the barking of dogs seems a refinement in their language, acquired 
in consequence of domestication. The dogs of all savage and 
solitary tribes are remarkable for their taciturnity, although they 
speedily begin to bark when carried into more thickly peopled 
countries. The black wolf-dog of the Florida Indians is described 
by Mr. Bartram as differing in nothing from the wild wolves of 
the country, except that he possessed the power of barking. A 
black wolf-dog, sent from Canada to the late Earl of Durham, 
seemed to combine the characters of the wolf and the original 
Newfoundland dog. 
The Hare Indian dog is a small domestic kind, used chiefly by 
the Hare Indians, and other tribes who frequent the borders of the 
Great Bear Lake, and the banks of the Mackenzie River. Sir 
John Richardson states its resemblance to a wild species called the 
Prairie Wolf ( Canis latrans of Say) to be so great, that, on com- 
paring live specimens together, he could detect no difference in 
form (the cranium is somewhat less in the domesticated kind), nor 
in the texture of the fur, nor the arrangement of the patches of 
colour. It seems to bear the same relation to the Prairie wolf 
that the Esquimaux dog does to the more gigantic grey species. 
It is very playful and affectionate, easily attached by kindness, 
but has an insuperable dislike to confinement. 
“ A young puppy/' says the traveller last named, “ which I pur- 
chased from the Hare Indians, became greatly attached to me ; and 
when about seven months old, ran on the snow by the side of my 
sledge for nine hundred miles, without suffering from fatigue. 
During this march it frequently of its own accord carried a small 
twig or one of my mittens for a mile or two ; but although very 
gentle in its manners, it shewed little aptitude in learning any of 
the arts which the Newfoundland dogs so speedily acquire of 
fetching and carrying when ordered. This dog was killed and 
eaten by an Irdian on the Sackatchewan, who pretended that he 
mistook it for a, fox*.” 
The still mere important fact (as bearing on at least one^ branch 
of the genealagy of the canine race) mentioned by Captain Back 
may be kept in mind, that the offspring of the wolf and dog are 
themselves prolific, and “ are prized by the voyagers as beasts of 
draught, beiig stronger than the ordinary dogst.” “ I have seen,” 
says Pallas “ at Moscow, about twenty spurious animals from 
dogs and hack wolves. They are for the most part like wolves, 
except that some carry their tails higher, and have a kind of coarse 
barking. Tiey multiply among themselves, and some of the whelps 
Loc. it, p. 80 . 
f Back’s Narrative , Appendix, p. 492 . 
