ON BREEDING. 
being subject to seasonal parchings; whilst, on the contrary, in 
plains of great extent, as those of India and the Savannahs 
of North America, which afford pasturage at all seasons, we 
discover them to be inhabited by animals of the larger kind, 
such as the ox, the buffalo, and the elephant; who, on account 
of their immense bulk, are not so well adapted for travelling in 
quest of food. 
“ Every soil 
And clime, ev’n every tree and lierb, receives 
Its habitant peculiar.” 
The wisdom with which nature has settled the proportions and 
size of animals to different countries is wonderful: she alone 
produces nothing but rational harmonies. 
“ Continue has leges aeternaque foedera, ccrtis 
Imposuit natura loeis, quo tempora prirnuni 
Deucalion vacuum lapides jactavit in orbem; 
Unde homines nati, durum genus.” 
Experience and observation appear to have sufficiently proved 
that animals have a natural tendency to adapt their habits to 
every climate in which art or accident places them. 
“ Nature, in every change, 
In each variety, with wisdom works ; 
And powers diversified, of air and soil, 
Her rich materials.” 
The first horse was, without doubt, the model upon which all 
horses were formed ; but this shape has undergone such a variety 
of alterations by the influence of climate, soil, and manner of 
living, that although the original impression is still preserved in 
each individual (for in all the different varieties the relations of 
the bones remain the same), yet there is not one which exactly 
resembles another, nor, of course, the model from which they 
originally sprung. Nature appears to have varied her means 
according to the obstacles to be surmounted : thus, animals who 
are inhabitants of swampy places, as “the hog,” for instance, 
“ would frequently sink into the deep marshes, had not nature 
placed above his heels two prominent excrescences, which assist 
him in getting out.” The ox, who frequents the marshy banks 
of rivers, is similarly provided, and for the same wise and bene¬ 
ficial purpose: the horse, reared in the humid pastures of the 
north, possesses a broad flat foot, which is not better suited to 
its peculiar situation than the small contracted foot of the eastern 
horse to the arid deserts of Arabia. Every kind of soil has its 
peculiar properties, capable of influencing the figure of animals, 
