62 
FIRST CLASS OF THE VERTEBRATED ANIMALS. 
diminished their mimbers considerably, yet we are informed by Oviedo, that within 
twenty-seven years from the discovery of St Domingo, herds of 4000 head of Cattle 
might frequently be encountered, and that there were even some containing at least 
8000. in the year 1587, the number of hides exported from this island alone 
amounted to 35,444, while 64,340 appear to have issued from the ports of New 
Spain. This was the sixty-fifth year after the capture of Mexico, before which event 
the Spaniards were entirely occupied in warfare, and it strikingly evinces the extreme 
rapidity with which these animals will increase their numbers when placed under fa- 
vorable circumstances. 
While the Cattle were in small numbers, and grouped around the habitations of 
their masters, they succeeded equally well almost every where ; but as soon as their 
numbers became greatly increased, it was discovered that in certain districts they 
could not exist without the assistance of Man. Unless they were able to find a cer- 
tain quantity of Salt, either in the substance of the plants which formed their food, 
or in the streams which in some districts acquire a brackish taste from the saline 
particles contained in the soil, it was found to be absolutely necessary to furnish it 
to them directly. If this precaution were not attended to, they became stunted and 
poor ; many of the females ceased to be fruitful, and the herds rapidly disappeared. 
Even in those districts where the Cattle can exist without this assistance, it has 
been found advantageous to distribute salt at stated intervals to the herd. This is 
one principal means of attaching them to a particular spot ; and so great is the avidity 
with which they take this substance, after being for some time deprived of it, that 
when it has been distributed to them two or three times at the same place, they are 
seen running from all quarters to the spot as soon as they hear the horns which tho 
herdsmen sound before making the distribution. 
If, however, the country yields a sufficient supply of salt, and if the herdsmen 
neglect to assemble the Cattle from time to time, they become in a very few years 
wholly wild. This has happened at two places to M. RouUn’s knowledge, the one in 
the province of San Martin, in a property belonging to the Jesuits, at the time when 
this religious order was expelled, the other in the province of Mariquita at Paramo 
dc Santa Isabel, in consequence of the abandonment of some works where the natives 
washed for Gold. In the latter place, the Cattle have not remained in the districts 
where they were originally placed, but have mounted the heights of tho Cordilleras 
to seek the region of the Grasses, and there live in a temperature almost uniform of 
48^ to 50° Fahrenheit. To this spot the peasants of the villages Mendez, Piedras, 
and some others situate in the plains, sometimes come to hunt them. They drive 
with knotted cords small divisions of the herd towards the places where snares havo 
been previously prepared. Whenever they obtain possession of one of these animals, 
it is often iippossible to conduct it alive from among the mountains. This does not 
arise from the resistance which the captive makes, for after a little time its violence 
begins to diminish ; but when the animal begins to perceive the futility of its efforts 
to escape, it is often seized with so great a tremor over the whole body, that it falls 
to the ground ; to make it rise becomes impossible, and it dies in a few hours. Tho 
want of salt to preserve the meat, the distance from any inhabited district, and tho 
difficult .nature of tho roads, prevent the hunters from deriving any other advantage 
from tho slain animal than tho portion which they can consume upon tho spot. These 
disadvantages render tho hunting of wild Cattle by no means frequent j and the hunters 
always run the risk of being surprised by the snow, which often falls in these ele- 
vated regions. When the snow lasts many days, those unfortunate men, accustomed 
to the continual warmth of the adjoining valleys, are sure to perish. If, how- 
ever, they are so fortunate as to bring one of these animals from the mountains, it is 
not difficult to tame j this is effected by confining it near to the farm, by supplying it 
regularly with salt, and habituating it to tho sight of Men, M. Roulin never had 
an opportunity of seeing one of these animals alive, but he tasted the flesh of a wild 
Calf which had been killed on the evening of bis arrival. Its flavour did not in any 
respect differ from that of tho common domestic Calf j the hide was remarkably 
thick, in other respects of the usual size ; the liair was long, thick, and rough. In 
the province of San Martin he, however, saw' a wild Roll of a chestnut colour, pas- 
turing in the Llanos in the midst of the domestic cattle. The Wild Bulls pass the 
moruinw in the woods which cover the base of the C-jrdilleras, and do not appear in 
tho Savannah until about two hours after noon, when they come out to feed. As 
soon as they perceive a Man, they hasten to regain the forest at a full gallop. 
The hide of the Wild Bull does not appear to differ in any respect from that of the 
domestic Cattle which inhabit the same districts. In both they are much heavier 
than the hides of the Cattle brought up on the plateau of Bogota, and the latter 
yield in this respect, as well as in respect to the thickness of their hair, to the wild 
Cattle of Paramo de Santa Isabel. 
In the warmest parts of the provinces of Mariquita and Neyba, there are some 
herds of horned Cattle with their hair extremely scanty and fine ; they are given, by 
antiphrasii, the epithet of Pelones. This variety is transmitted to their descendants, 
hut no care is taken to preserve the breed, as tho Polones are unable to bear tho 
cold of the elevated regions of the Cordilleras, where the cattle intended for con- 
sumption or exportation must remain for some time to fatten. There is also another 
variety of Cattle in this district called Calmigosy having the skin entirely naked like 
the Barbary Dog. As these animals arc more feeble and delicate, it is usual to kiU 
them before they are old enough for breeding. These never appear in tho cold districts. 
In Europe, where the milk of the Cow forms a very important article of rural 
economy, it is usual to milk her continually from the moment of the birth of her first 
Calf until she ceases to be fertile. This practice, continually repeated upon all these 
animals for a long series of generations, has had tho effect of producing permanent 
alterations in the species. The udders have acquired an extraordinary size, and the 
milk continues to be secreted even after the Calf has been removed. In Columbia, 
however, the introduction of a new rural system, the abundance of cattle in propor- 
tion to the number of inhabitants, their dispersion in pastures of very great extent, 
and a number of other circumstances which need not here be detailed, have counter- 
acted this effect of domestication. The organization and function of the udder soon 
resume their original state when freed from the long-continued influence of habit. 
At present if a Cow of Columbia be intended to yield mUk for the dairy, the first 
care must be to preserve the Calf ; it is allowed to remain along with its mother for 
the entire day, during which she is permitted to suckle it. They can be separated 
only at night, and the milk secreted during the interval of their separation alone 
becomes available for economical purposes, and accordingly it is abstracted every 
morning. If the Calf happen to die, the secretion of the milk is immediately stopped. 
In America, the Cat has scarcely undergone any alteration, except in its having 
no period of the year corresponding to tho rutting season. This peculiarity, which 
might naturally be expected in a climate always equal, exists also with the Hog, the 
Bull, the Horse, the Ass, and tho Dog. Although Kids and Lambs are born all 
the year round, yet there are two periods of tho year, Christmas and Whitsunday, 
when the number of births is greatly increased. 
These particulars, furnished by M. Roulin, though necessarily defective on many 
interesting points, enable us to draw several important conclusions, which servo to 
throw a light upon the past history of our domestic animals, and directly also upon the 
philosophy of species in Zoology. However, the extreme difficulty of distinguishing 
those phenomena which are due solely to domestication from those belonging to food, 
climate, and situation, lead us naturally to inquire whether tho records of ancient 
History can yield us any information regarding the progress of variation among 
our domestic animals. If wc can discover in these writings any traces of their gradual 
deviation from the form of the wild races, we have an additional evidence in support 
of those views which have here been laid down. 
Unfortunately tho notices of the domestic animals in the writings of the ancients 
are neither numerous nor full ; yet however scanty, they possess a peculiar interest 
and importance. It is true that wc find those civil and military events which attend 
the rise and fall of great Empires, or the establishment of different religions, and other 
historical events concerning the Human Race, recorded with a scrupulous attention; 
but the ancients may be said to have wholly neglected the minor histories of tho farm- 
yard and stable. The gradual modifications of their domestic auimals presented none 
of those brilliant events and striking positions which compose the ordinary pages of 
history, but, moving onwarils with a silent and almost insensible step, they escaped 
the notice of their contemporaries. Man, on becoming civilized, soon forgot, with char- 
acteristical ingratitude, those early companions of his labours, without whose aid his own 
progress might have been indefinitely retarded. It is only now by examining the 
aggregate of their changes through a long course of years, that we are led to perceive 
the extent of their modifications, and can fully appreciate the importance of their con- 
tributions towards the wealth and happiness of society. 
IHodern Naturalists have commonly supposed that the native country of our domes- 
tic Mammalia cannot be ascertained; yet it would appear that these animals wore all 
living in a wild state in Europe at the time of Aristotle. This great Naturalist 
himself attests the fact, and mentions the Horse, Bull, Hog, Sheep, Goat, and 
Dog, as familiar instances. We are also informed by I^Uny, after having alluded to 
the intercourse between domestic Pigs and the wild Boar, that there were no domesti- 
cated animals in his time, which could not also be found in a wild state. (In omnibus 
animalibus placidum ejusdem invenitur ct ferum). 
The concordance of these two passages is striking, and they prove that in the 450 
years which elapsed from tho time of Aristotle to that of Pliny, the domestic auimal* 
had not been widely distributed over the globe, nor had they undergone much varia- 
tion. Indeed, as long as wild animals reside in the immediate vicinity of the tame 
herds, it is certain that the domestication of the latter will he exceedingly imperfect. 
The continual intercourse of the wild with the tamo animals, and tho contagious 
example of herds running wild in neighbouring mountains and deserts, must have 
diverted tho captive animals from those domestic habits to which the restraints of 
Man would otherwise have reduced them. In this rcs^icot, tlie partially domesticated 
races would have resembled those Indians of tho United States of America, which are 
taken from their tribes during their infancy, and educated in the midst of to^'ms, 
both in the religion and manners of the Europeans. At the age of twenty or thirty 
years, if they happen to encounter in the woods a tribe of Hunters of their own 
nation, so hereditary are their propensities, that they at once reject their fornn?*’ 
peaceable life, with all its advantages, moral and intellectual, and plunge without re- 
flection into the savage and adventurous life of their ancestors. 
Varro appeal's to confirm the opinion of the Greek and Oriental Philosophers, that 
tho Sheep, in consequence of its superior docility and mildnijss, was the first anini®^ 
which became domesticated. “ The Sheep,” says he, “ is not only of a very peaceful 
nature, but it is tho animal most fitted to supply the wants of ftlan, since it 
not only milk and cheese for food, but also its wool and skin for clothing.” “ 
several countries,” continues Varro, there still exist in the wild state some of th^ 
animals which we have rendered domestic. In Phrygia and Lycaonia, many flocks 
of Wild Sheep are to be found. The Wild Goat exists in Samothrace, and there are 
several in Italy, in the mountains adjoining Fiscellum (now Monte della Sibilla, 
Ahbruzo), and Tetrica (near tho most elevated point of tho Appenines in the 
jMarch of Ancona). In respect to the Hog, every one knows that he is desceu a 
from the Boar, which is found wild in all countries. There are still a great number 
of Wild Bulls in Dardania, Mysia, and Thrace ; there are Wild Asses in Phrygia- 
in Lycaonia, and Wild Horses in some parts of Hither Spain.” (Re Rustic, Il> ' 
4-b'). 
This passage of Varro fully corroborates tho testimonies of Aristotle and 
and his evidence is important, as wo know that Varro himself travelled ^*****^'^^^ 0 ^^ 
the countries where he places these wild animals. Alodern researches have ven 
a part of Varro s declaration, and recognize tho origimil localities of the Ass. 
arc the mountains of Taurus and lower Curdistan, separating Persia from Afghuuw 
Here it still exists in the wild state, and tho pursuit of this Solipode has loug 
one of the chief amusements of the Persian Kings. . 
Buffon and other modern Naturalist differ in opinion from Varro and the 
Philosophers, regarding the priority of domestication with tho Sheep. The 
according to Buffon, was tho first animal which Man acquired for his use ; 
was by the assistance of this animal that he was able to seize and subdue all *'*'* “„. 
species necessary to supply the wants of an infant society. This opinion rests c 
upon tile extreme facility with which wild auimals of the Dog Genus are tamed, ari ” 
