I may add that the domestic dogs on the coast of Guinea are fox-like
animals, and are dumb. (1/25. John Barbut 'Description of the Coast of
Guinea in 1746.') On the east coast of Africa, between latitude 4 deg and 6
deg south, and about ten days' journey in the interior, a semi-domestic
dog, as the Rev. S. Erhardt informs me, is kept, which the natives assert
is derived from a similar wild animal. Lichtenstein (1/26. 'Travels in
South Africa' volume 2 page 272.) says that the dogs of the Bosjemans
present a striking resemblance even in colour (excepting the black stripe
down the back) with the C. mesomelas of South Africa. Mr. E. Layard informs
me that he has seen a Caffre dog which closely resembled an Esquimaux dog.
In Australia the Dingo is both domesticated and wild; though this animal
may have been introduced aboriginally by man, yet it must be considered as
almost an endemic form, for its remains have been found in a similar state
of preservation and associated with extinct mammals, so that its
introduction must have been ancient. (1/27. Selwyn, Geology of Victoria;
'Journal of Geolog. Soc.' volume 14 1858 page 536 and volume 16 1860 page
148; and Prof. M'Coy in 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.' (3rd series) volume
9 1862 page 147. The Dingo differs from the dogs of the central Polynesian
islands. Dieffenbach remarks ('Travels' volume 2 page 45) that the native
New Zealand dog also differs from the Dingo.)
From this resemblance of the half-domesticated dogs in several countries to
the wild species still living there,--from the facility with which they can
often be crossed together,--from even half-tamed animals being so much
valued by savages,--and from the other circumstances previously remarked on
which favour their domestication, it is highly probable that the domestic
dogs of the world are descended from two well-defined species of wolf (viz.
C. lupus and C. latrans), and from two or three other doubtful species
(namely, the European, Indian, and North African wolves); from at least one
or two South American canine species; from several races or species of
jackal; and perhaps from one or more extinct species. Although it is
possible or even probable that domesticated dogs, introduced into any
country and bred there for many generations, might acquire some of the
characters proper to the aboriginal Canidae of the country, we can hardly
thus account for introduced dogs having given rise to two breeds in the
same country, resembling two of its aboriginal species, as in the above-
given cases of Guiana and of North America. (1/28. These latter remarks
afford, I think, a sufficient answer to some criticisms by Mr. Wallace, on
the multiple origin of dogs, given in Lyell's 'Principles of Geology' 1872
volume 2 page 295.)
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