a 
SPECIES. 
assume the form of the original type. On allow- 
ing the domestic animals to run wild,—on per- 
-mitting them to substitute the wandering habits 
and precarious subsistence of mountains and 
forests for the uniform and regular diet of the 
stable, we ought to find that their acquired cha- 
racters disappear, that all the individuals bear 
that marked resemblance to each other, which 
will serve to indicate both the identity of their 
species, and the original form from which the 
races have diverged. The experiments confirm- 
ing the truth of this conclusion have long been 
performed on the largest scale in the immense 
continent of America. It is well known that the 
Europeans, on the first discovery of the New 
World, sought in vain for any vestige of that ani- 
mal creation to which they had so long been fa- 
miliarized. Those useful animals, without whose 
aid, in the first instance, the civilization of man 
might have been indefinitely retarded, had to be 
transported to America to supply the immediate 
necessities of the earlier colonists. Soon, how- 
ever, the accidental flight of some animals to the 
woods, hastened probably by the abundant supply 
of food, and a favourable climate, which, in in- 
creasing their fecundity, rendered a vigilant care 
of them superfluous, a large proportion became 
absolutely wild, and the establishment of wild 
individuals in the immediate neighbourhood of 
the tame herds, soon exerted a direct modifying 
influence over the latter. Hence, in America, 
we may see performed, on a magnificent scale, 
the converse of that gradual modification which 
the domestic animals underwent in their original 
transition from the wild state; and may further 
compare those half domesticated herds, acknow- 
ledging only a partial submission to man, with 
the humble individuals of their own species, 
which still yield him a patient and implicit 
obedience. 
It is evident that careful observations should 
be multiplied over the whole continent of Ame- 
rica, in order to render this investigation com- 
plete ; but we owe to M. Roulin the merit of 
having traced some changes in a portion of this 
vast country. That learned physician, during 
his residence in Colombia for six years, has col- 
lected a number of interesting facts which were 
communicated to the Royal Academy of Science 
at Paris in the year 1828. These observations 
were made in New Grenada and a part of Vene- 
zuela, from the 3d to the 10th degree of north 
latitude, and from the 70th to the 80th degree of 
west longitude. 
country may appear, it offered unusual facilities 
for observation, being traversed throughout its 
entire course by the great cordilleras of the 
Andes, which are here divided into three princi- 
pal chains ; so that, within the distance of a few 
leagues, the same living animals were investi- 
gated, though resident in one district, where the 
~ medium temperature is only 50° Fahrenheit, and 
in another where it varies from 77° to 86°. The 
However limited this tract of 
303 
mammalia transported from EKurope to America 
were the hog, the horse, the ass, the sheep, the 
goat, the cow, the dog, and the cat. It becomes 
important to ascertain whether these animals 
retain the forms acquired in Europe, or whether 
they have undergone any considerable change. 
By carefully comparing these phenomena with 
the circumstances under which they have arisen, 
much light may be thrown upon those modifica- 
tions which probably attended the transition of 
these animals from the wild to the domestic state. 
The first hogs brought to America were intro- 
duced by Columbus, and became established at 
Saint Domingo in November 1493, being the year 
which followed its discovery. During the follow- 
ing years they were successively carried into all 
those places where the Spaniards attempted to 
fix themselves, and, in the period of about half a 
century, they might be found wild from the 25th 
degree of north to the 40th of south latitude. In 
no place do their important changes appear to 
have been effected by climate, and they have re- 
produced everywhere with the same facility as in 
Europe. Most of the pork consumed in New 
Grenada comes from the warmest valleys, where 
the hogs are bred in large numbers, from their 
maintenance costing but little. During some 
seasons they are even supported wholly by wild 
fruits, and especially by those of the several spe- 
cies of palms. From roaming constantly in the 
woods, the hog has lost in this district all traces 
of his former domestication. His ears are straight 
and erect, his head has widened and become 
elevated in the upper region. The colour has 
again become constant, being entirely black. The 
young pigs have several fawn-coloured stripes, 
like the European wild boar in its youth, and 
upon a ground of the same colour. Such are the 
hogs brought to Bogota from the valleys of To- 
cayma, Cunday, and Melgar. Their hair is 
scanty, and on this account they bear a striking 
resemblance to the wild boar of Europe, from a 
year to eighteen months old. This deficiency of 
hair is not, however, peculiar to the hogs of 
Grenada, but is also experienced by the common 
wild boar of Europe. M. Roulin observed an in- 
stance of it in France, at a farm near Fougéres, 
where seven or eight of these animals were 
brought up together. One of them, being about 
two years old, had been fed in a stable from the 
beginning of spring, with the intention of fatten- 
ing it for the market. Though the animal had 
not been closely confined in this place, the good 
feeding of the stable was sufficient to induce it 
to remain at home. Its hair had almost wholly 
fallen off from the effects of the heat, and it ex- 
hibited a most perfect resemblance to the hogs of 
Melgar above described, except that the two 
horizontal stripes on the sides of the muzzle were 
more decidedly marked, and gave it a stronger 
expression of ferocity. The hogs of the Para- 
mos, which are mountains at least 8,200 feet 
above the level of the sea, approach much more 
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