автор(ы): Watson James

Theories as to the origin of the dog have been plentiful, and as unsatisfactory as plentiful. We have got little further in that direction than was the case a hundred years ago, when but little was known regarding the history of the world beyond what was stated in the Bible and could be found in Greek or Roman, or still more modern, literature. Since then we have travelled back to full seven thousand years ago, and as far back as we find the dog represented by drawings, sculpture, or carvings, we find him a distinct animal. Why the dog should not be given as much credit for originality as any other animal is almost remarkable; but some people have it that he is but a wolf, a prairie-wolf, or a jackal domesticated, and when it comes to the varieties of the dog, we have the most marvellous assumptions. There was not a dog living, according to writers of the eighteenth century, that was not a cross between two other varieties, or even impossible crosses, such as the mastiff being from a cross with the hyena, while some other breed had a dash of the Bengal leopard. The former assertion was made by such eminent naturalists as Pallas and Burchell, and even Lowe stated in his modern “Domestic Animals of Great Britain” that it was very possible. The wild dogs of India were said to be a cross between the wolf and the tiger, and other equally ridiculous statements were made.

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