i66 
WANTED— A NEW MEAT 
be able to go beyond these limits ; for the general 
experience of civilized man has already pronounced 
judgment on the question, and science supports the 
verdict. It is no good to eat a wolf; for the wolf has 
already got the benefit of eating the lamb, and left no 
surplus for us. Of the three great tribes, the rodents 
may be dismissed from our search ; for those that are 
not already used as food are either too small to be 
useful, as the lemming or the guinea-pig, or too 
repulsive in appearance, like the capybara, or in habits, 
like the rat. Of the pachyderms, we find only one 
which is domesticated for food — the dear, familiar 
Berkshire or Yorkshire piggie. The larger pachy- 
derms are too big ; the smaller, like the peccary, too 
savage ; the wart-hog and other African varieties too 
repulsive. Clearly, then, we must have resource to 
the list of ruminants if we are to find one to add to 
the British bill-of-fare. At first, the choice seems wide 
enough. It embraces all the deer-tribe, the wild sheep 
and antelopes, goats and ibexes, which are numerous ; 
but they all possess a rank and disagreeable flavour, 
which must prevent their coming into the list of first- 
class food. The possibility of extending the supply of 
venison we have already considered. The wild sheep 
would probably differ so little in flavour from mutton 
as to make it hardly worth while to domesticate them, 
though those of the Himalaya will breed freely in 
confinement. The antelopes and wild oxen, therefore, 
alone remain, and it is among their number that the 
animal wanted must be found, if it is to be found at 
