n
seems to me to be the case, what does it show, but that some of our breeds
originated there, four or five thousand years ago? But Mr. Horner's
researches have rendered it in some degree probable that man sufficiently
civilized to have manufactured pottery existed in the valley of the Nile
thirteen or fourteen thousand years ago; and who will pretend to say how
long before these ancient periods, savages, like those of Tierra del Fuego
or Australia, who possess a semi-domestic dog, may not have existed in
Egypt?

The whole subject must, I think, remain vague; nevertheless, I may, without
here entering on any details, state that, from geographical and other
considerations, I think it highly probable that our domestic dogs have
descended from several wild species. Knowing, as we do, that savages are
very fond of taming animals, it seems to me unlikely, in the case of the
dog-genus, which is distributed in a wild state throughout the world, that
since man first appeared one single species alone should have been
domesticated. In regard to sheep and goats I can form no opinion. I should
think, from facts communicated to me by Mr. Blyth, on the habits, voice,
and constitution, &c., of the humped Indian cattle, that these had
descended from a different aboriginal stock from our European cattle; and
several competent judges believe that these latter have had more than one
wild parent. With respect to horses, from reasons which I cannot give here,
I am doubtfully inclined to believe, in opposition to several authors, that
all the races have descended from one {19} wild stock. Mr. Blyth, whose
opinion, from his large and varied stores of knowledge, I should value more
than that of almost any one, thinks that all the breeds of poultry have
proceeded from the common wild Indian fowl (Gallus bankiva). In regard to
ducks and rabbits, the breeds of which differ considerably from each other
in structure, I do not doubt that they have all descended from the common
wild duck and rabbit.

The doctrine of the origin of our several domestic races from several
aboriginal stocks, has been carried to an absurd extreme by some authors.
They believe that every race which breeds true, let the distinctive
characters be ever so slight, has had its wild prototype. At this rate
there must have existed at least a score of species of wild cattle, as many
sheep, and several goats in Europe alone, and several even within Great
Britain. One author believ