ON BREEDING. 
261 
to lop away all extraneous matter; and now I hope I have done 
with it for ever. As Johnson says, “ I dismiss it with fr igicl 
tranquility. ” 
I hope I have fairly stated the question as regards the Pro¬ 
fessors ; and if, in the course of these observations, I have un¬ 
wittingly trod upon any body’s corn, I am ready to say, “ I did 
not intend it.” Between you and me I should hope there never 
can be any other feeling but that of kindness. Believe me 
always yours, &c. 
ON BREEDING. 
By Mr. Karkeek, of Truro. 
[Continued from p. 197.] 
VARIETIES IN FIGURE AND STATURE. 
“ Then from wliate’er we can to sense produce, 
Common and plain, or wondrous and abstruse, 
From Nature’s constant or eccentric laws 
The thoughtful soul this general inference draws,— 
That an effect must presuppose a cause.” 
Were it possible to ascertain the primeval state of those do¬ 
mestic animals which either immediately or more remotely con¬ 
duce to the support and happiness of mankind ; and could trace 
out the various changes which art or accident has, in successive 
generations, produced in each, few inquiries would be more in¬ 
teresting. But our sources of information are not sufficient to 
direct us in our inquiries, as we are still ignorant of the native 
country, and existence in a wild state, of some of the most im¬ 
portant of our domestic animals, that have departed so widely 
from their prototype, that we are unable to distinguish the com¬ 
mon stock from whence they originated. 
In countries where the influence and operations of man have 
had but little effect, we can discover the most wonderful adaptation, 
in the structure of animals, to the nature of the country. The 
climate and soil of Arabia, for instance, appears particularly cal¬ 
culated for rearing animals of great speed : the fleetest animals in 
the world abound there, such as the antelope, the ostrich, the 
horse, the ass, and, lastly, the camel, which is said, by the 
Arabs, to be capable of travelling as great a distance in one day 
as their best horses can do in five. 
Those animals, on account of their great speed, are well cal¬ 
culated for migrating in quest of food and water: this, it appears, 
they oftentimes are obliged to do, on account of their country 
