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Show 16 DOGS. CHAP. I. later tertiary deposits more like those of ~ l~rge dog than of a wolf, which favours the belief of .De Blau~vJllc that our dogs are the descendants of a single extmct speCies. On the other hand, some authors go so far as to assert that every chief domestic breed must have had its wild prototype. This latter view is extremely improbable ; it allows nothing for vat·iation; it passes orer the almo t monstrous character of some of the breeds· and it almost nece sarily assumes, that a large uumber of species have become extinct since man do~esti cuted th.e dog; wh reas we plainly see that the members of the dog-family are extirpated by human agency with much difficulty; . even so recently as 1710 the wolf existed in so small an 1sland as Ireland. Tho reasons which have led various authors to infer that our dogs have descended from more than one wild SJ:>ecics arc as follows.2 Firstly, the great difference between the several breeds ; Lut this will appear of comparatively little weight, after we shall have seen how great are the differeuces between the several races of various domesticated animals wl1ich certainly have descended from a ingle parent-form. Seconuly, the more important fact that, at the most anciently known hi torieal period~, several breeds of the dog existed, very unlike eaeh other, and closely resembling or id •ntical with breeds still alive. W c will brief1y run back through the historical records. The materials are remarkably deficient between the fourtee11th century and the Homan classical pcriod.3 At this earlier period 2 Pallas, I believe, originated this doctrine in 'Act. Acad. St. Peter burgh,' 1780, Part ii. Ehrenberg Las ndvocat!! d it, as may be seen in Do Blainville's • Ostcogmphi.:,' p. 79. It has boon canicd to an extreme rxtt·nt by Col. I-Jomiltun Smith in the 'Naturnlist Library,' vol. ix. anu x. Mr. W. U. Murtin adopts it in his exC'ell ent 'Uibtory of the Dog,' 1845; as dol'S Dr. Morton, · as well ns Nott and Gliddon, in the Uniteu Stntcs. Prof. Low, in his 'Domesticated Animo Is,· 1845, p. 6GG, comes to this :;arne conclusion. No ono bas argued on tltis siuo wiLh more clearness A.nd force than the late James Wi..ll!on, of Edinburgh, iu variollil papers road before tl1e Ilighlnnd Agriculturnl and Worneriun Soeieties. Isidore Geoffroy Saint Hiluiro (' IIi~t . Nat. Gen.,' 1860, tom. iii. p. 107, though l1e believes that most dogs have dm.rend<.d from the jackal, yet iuclinos to tl.o belief that some aro descended fmm the wolf. Prof. Gorvnis (' lli~t. Nnt. MA.mm.,' 1855, tom. ii. p. G9, referring to the view that all tl1e domeslic raC'cS are the modified descenda111s ol' a single species, after a lo11g discnosion, uys, "Cette opinion est, buivant nous du moins, ln. moins probnbl o,'' a B01jrnu, • Tho Vuriotif'S of tho Dog; in olu Sculptures und Pictures,' 18(3::1. 'Dor Hund,' von Dr. l!'. L. Walther, CHAP. r. TIIEIR PARENTAGE. 17 various breeds, namely hounds, house-dogs, lapdogs, &c., exist eel ; but as Dr. Walther has remarked it is impossible to recognise the greater number with any certainty. Youatt, however, gives a drawing of a beautiful sculpture of two greyhound puppies from the Villa of Antoninus. On an Assyrian monument, about G40 B.c., an enormous mastiff 4 is figured; and according to Sir IT. Hawlinson (as I was informed at the British Museum), similar dogs are still imported into this same country. I have looked through the magnificent works of Lepsius and Hoscllini, and on the monuments from the fourth to the twelfth dynasties (i.e. from about 3400 B.C. to 2100 B.c.) several varieties of the dog arc represented; mo t of them are allied to greyhounds; at the later of these periods a dog resembling a hound is figured, with drooping ears, but with a longer back and more pointed head than in our hounds. There is, also, a turnspit, with short and crooked legs, closely resembling tho existing variety; but this kind of monstrosity is so common with various animals, as with the ancon sheep, and even, according to Rengger, with jaguars in Paraguay, that it would be rash to look at the monumental animal as the parent of all our turnspits : Colonel Sykes 5 also bas described an Indian Pariah clog as presenting the same monstrous character. The most ancient clog represented on the Egyptian monuments is one of the most sinO'ular · . bl 0 It resem es a greyhound, but has long pointed cars and a' short curled tail: a closely allied variety still exists in N orthcrn Africa; for l\fr. E. Vernon Harcourt 6 states that the ~rab boar-hound is "~n eccentric hieroglyphic animal, such as Cheops once hun~ed w~th, somewhat resembling the rough Scotch dcer-hotmd; their tails are curled tight round on their backs ' s. 48, Giosson, 1817 : this author seems carefully to have studied all classical works on the subject. See also • Volz ~citriigo zur Kultur-goschiohto,' Lcip~ ztg, 1852, s. 115. ' Youatt on the Do..,. ' 1845, P· G .. A. very full history is giv~~ by Do lllam ville iu his ' Osteo"'raph.io Oanidro.' 0 ' ~ I have seen drawings of this dog from tho tomb of tho sou of Esar II~~don, and clay models in tho Bnttsh l\fuseum. Nott and Gliddon VO~ L ' in th~ir 'Typos of l\fankind,' 1854, p. 393, g1vo a copy of these drawings. This dog has boon called a Thibotan mastitr but Mr. H. A. Oldfield, who is familia; with tho so-called 'fhibot mastiff. and ha~ . examined tho drawings in' tho Bnbsh Museum, informs me that he considers them different. 5 'Proo. Zoolog. Soc.,' July 12th, 1831. 6 ' Sporting in Algeria,' p. 51. c |