the dog among civilised nations, and no report that savages or semi-savages have ever domesticated the allied wild species around them.

Sir Harry Johnston, in his 'Uganda,' expresses his surprise that the most intelligent negro tribes seem never to have thought of domesticating any wild animals until the advent of Europeans.

The Australian aborigines, instead of trying to domesticate the dingo-their wild dog -eat him.

There is undoubtedly all over the world a general similarity in physique between domestic dogs and their wild allies in the same locality, and this at first sight seems to support the hypothesis that domestic dogs are descended from allied wild species; but according to our theory, the wild dog was not the ancestor but the antecessor of the domestic dog, and the last step in his evolution was more a modification in character, disposition, and habits than in physical type. These differences in character are so great, and in some respects so antagonistic, that they separate the domestic dog from allied wild species as certainly as specific variations in physical type.

CHAPTER XIII.

DOMESTIC ANIMALS.

It is assumed by Darwin and other naturalists that all domestic animals come from the allied wild species; but although their similarity in appearance points at first sight to this conclusion, differences between them in temperament and disposition, as persistent as differences in physique, prove them to be distinct races.

The origin of the domesticity of all domestic animals is shrouded in mystery. We learn from the most ancient records of the human race, as well as from bones found in the débris of the lake-dwellings of the Neolithic age, that domestic animals have been associated with man from the earliest times, and, so far as we know, domestication has always been their natural condition. 1

1 Neolithic man had already domesticated the dog, horse, goat, and sheep (Page and Lapworth's Geology, p. 287).

There is nothing, either in history or legendary lore, to support the assertion that any wild race has ever been domesticated, although a feat which conferred such benefits on mankind would certainly have been deemed heroic. No new race has been added to our domestic animals in historical times.

Was domestication only possible in the days when the world was young and man an uncivilised savage?

But then Sir Harry Johnston tells us that the natives of Central Africa never thought of domesticating wild animals.

Many species of animals have been more or less tamed, but there is no authentic record of the domestication of the wild cat, ass, or boar among quadrupeds; or of the common fowl, turkey, or duck among birds; and it adds to the mystery that it is very doubtful whether the horse, the dog, or the camel is to be found in a wild state, except where it is known that they, or their predecessors, have come from domestic animals, 1

The difference between wild and domestic animals of allied breeds lies more in their disposition and character than in their

1 Homer's "horse-tamers" would now be called "horsebreakers."

physique. An ordinary observer would fail to distinguish any specific difference between the wild cattle in Chillingham Park and the domestic shorthorn, with which they are fertile; but although these cattle have for hundreds of years been kept in this park, and habituated to man, they are no nearer domestication than they were a hundred years ago. "One remarkable feature must not go unnoticed," says Lord Tankerville in reporting the results of breeding the Chillingham cattle with domestic shorthorns, "and that is, however possible it may be to alter the general appearance and weight of the animal, little or no influence has yet been produced in its temperament-that is, by crossing with shorthorns."

This experience indicates that characteristics of temperament are more persistent than those of physique.

The domestic reindeer of Lapland differs from the wild, and although there are wild reindeer in North America, none are domestic.

Writing on the domestication of wild animals, Mr David Wilson, judge in Moulmein, says: "There are wild cattle in Burmah-saing so called-whose skulls I have compared with skulls of the domestic breed.

The skulls of the wild kinds are stronger and thicker in the frontal ridge between the horns, and there is a slight difference in shape. Experienced hunters tell me

that the wild cattle are uniform in colour and shape of horns, and the bull bigger than the domestic (Burman or Indian) bull. The domestic cattle of Burmah differ from the Indian domestic cattle, and are more like the native wild cattle, but, except their general similarity, there is no reason to suppose that they are that they are the same animals domesticated. Jungle-fowl are not unlike the ordinary domestic fowl here, except that the cock is much bigger; the hens are much the same. My wife has often bought two dozen chickens in a lot, and afterwards found that half a dozen jungle-fowls had been passed off amongst them unobserved. Mr Murray, Deputy Conservator of Forests, assures me he tried in vain to domesticate them and failed, although he collected their eggs and hatched them at home.

"The wild cattle, or saing, are, I read in books, slightly domesticated by some hill tribes (Chins). The tamed saing are said to live in the forests in a condition very similar to their wild state. But the case of the elephant seems the strongest argument