The Earth as Modified by Human ActionMarsh, George P. (George Perkins)
History
The Earth as Modified by Human Action
Marsh, George P. (George Perkins)
Conservation of natural resources; Human geography; Nature -- Effect of human beings on; Physical geography
Quadrupeds, both domestic and wild, bear the privations and discomforts
of long voyages better than would be supposed. The elephant, the
giraffe, the rhinoceros, and even the hippopotamus, do not seem to
suffer much at sea. Some of the camels imported by the U.S. government
into Texas from the Crimea and Northern Africa were a whole year on
shipboard. On the other hand, George Sand, in Un Hiver au Midi, gives an
amusing description of the sea-sickness of swine in the short passage
from the Baleares to Barcelona. America had no domestic quadruped but a
species of dog, the lama tribe, and, to a certain extent, the bison or
buffalo. [Footnote: See Chapter III., post; also Humboldt, Ansichten der
Natur, i., p. 71. From the anatomical character of the bones of the
urus, or auerochs, found among the relics of the lacustrine population
of ancient Switzerland, and from other circumstances, it is inferred
that this animal had been domesticated by that people; and it is stated,
I know not upon what authority, in Le Alpi che cingono l'Italia, that it
had been tamed by the Veneti also. See Lyell, Antiquity of Man, pp. 24,
25, and the last-named work, p. 480. This is a fact of much interest,
because it is one of the very few HISTORICALLY known instances of the
extinction of a domestic quadruped, and the extreme improbability of
such an event gives some countenance to the theory of the identity of
the domestic ox with, and its descent from, the urus.]Of course, it owes
the horse, the ass, the ox, the sheep, the goat, and the swine, as does
also Australia, to European colonization. Modern Europe has, thus far,
not accomplished much in the way of importation of new animals, though
some interesting essays have been made. The reindeer was successfully
introduced into Iceland about a century ago, while similar attempts
failed, about the same time, in Scotland. The Cashmere or Thibet goat
was brought to France a generation since, and succeeds well. The same or
an allied species and the Asiatic buffalo were carried to South Carolina
about the year 1850, and the former, at least, is thought likely to
prove of permanent value in the United States. [Footnote: The goat
introduced into South Carolina was brought from the district of Angora,
in Asia Minor, which has long been celebrated for flocks of this
valuable animal. It is calculated that more than a million of these
goats are raised in that district, and it is commonly believed that the
Angora goat and its wool degenerate when transported. Probably this is
only an invention of the shepherds to prevent rivals from attempting to
interfere with so profitable a monopoly. But if the popular prejudice
has any foundation, the degeneracy is doubtless to be attributed to
ignorance of the special treatment which long experience has taught the
Angora shepherds, and the consequent neglect of such precautions as are
necessary to the proper care of the animal. Throughout nearly the whole
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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