The Portsmouth inquirer. [volume] (Portsmouth, O. [Ohio]) 1849-1855, 1851-02-10

is more and more appreciated. and with in
creasln5 demands for it, the value Of labor
is telt; he wants more than he has; human
strength is not great and is soon exhausted;
III his need h reflects, and reflection brings
help. There are quadrupeds stronger than
he. ami OF greater endurance; why should
they idle away tnsm existence and he be COM
pelled to daily toll? Why not make some
OF them work for him?
Thus he reasons, and, according to climate
and other exigencies, acts Hence Lapland-
ers yoke reindeer, and Esquimaux dogs TO
their sledges. The Arab early seized the
Dromedary and Camel as his drudges, and
other people the OK. The slender Hindoo
and 1.-THE Malay bring in the Elephant from
lIisndtive jungles, for the same purpose. FL,
nally, the horse, mule, and ass were added
to the list, and the era of animal forces ex-
hibited in relief.
Other creatures were also educated for
mans profit or pleasure in less general way.
Goats and dogs were trained to climb in
tread-wheels, and bears were broken in to
the same kind of labor by Scandinavian
tribes. Then there was hawking, leopard
hunting, and fishing with cormorants, as
still practised by the Chinese. Old Egyp-
tians taught baboons to gather fruit from
precipices and trees inaccessible to man.
The Chinese still employ them and monkeys
at similar work.
From the excess Of power which some ami
mails are endowed, it may be inferred that
they are designed to serve as co-laborers with
man. Were this not so, it would be difficult
TO assign the reason why the larger quadru-
peds that have been domesticated possess
surplus of strength far beyond what their
natural emergencies seem torequire, while to
US who stand in the greatest need of it, SO
small a share has been given. AS all acting
forces on the globe are derived from bodies
living Or inert, it was natures suggestion,
first TO turn to the larger quadrupeds; the
most decided step this toward civilization
In what lamentable state would our spe
cies be now, had it yet to be taken From
their comparative docility herbiyofous tribes
were properly selected.
The power man exercises over animals. Is
one of the most remarkable episodes in his
history. 1t is miraculous, but, like other
miracles, having became familiar, 1t ceases to
surprise. They are plastic almost as clay in
his hands, for he nioulds them as his fancy
and wishes suggest. Selecting some as labor
ers, he adds muscle and bone, or wilhdraws
them as strength OR speed is required. Thus
he produces race and drausht horses from
one stock, and works equal changes in por.
cine, bovine, ovine, and canine families. OF
fowls, take pigeons for an example; their fig.
ures are so far under his control t. at he mul.
tiplies varieties till every apparent affinity
with the original is lost; their colors, too
producing spots where he pleases, or, as the
professional expression is, breeding them sic
leather"
Larger numbers of animals are employed
as chemical nanipulators for the production
of such substances as he finds useful for his
purposes, and which he compels them to
yield in larger quantities than they would or
, could give out without them. He controls
the qualities Of these products also; eliciting
! in excess constituent elements that he most
desires. Of insects he keeps myriads al
work as con(ectionars-other tribes as spin
, ners, and others again as druggists to supply
him with dyes. We may boast of interest.
, ing compounds which modern chemistry has
furnished, but what are they compared tc
the products of these living laboratories
: laboratories, the most valuable OF which he
> has improved and multiplied, and will, ul'
!, til analogous results. at cheaper rate, art
: obtained from artificial apparatus.
Had nothing been told us otancient Amer
> lean arts, we might have inferred the amour
: Of refinement pervading Chill and Peru from
: one fact alone-the employment OF the lam'
: : as beast OF burden, the only one within
: . reach-a step this which tribes wholly untu
y tored never took. The aborigines of th'
i north had the bison, and in the proportion
4 that its strength exceeds that OF the Amer
- can camel, would they have excelled thei
y Austral kindred, had they broken it to tn
woke. They neglected to improve the talen
committed to their charge, and are compelle'
|, to make way Tor those who will. The bulfa
lie 10, for unknown ages, has been used in ullin
n the soils of Asia and Africa. Had our lndl
:. ans pressed it into the same service here, the
D. would not now be as fugitives and vaga
r bonds in the land of their fathers.
le The vast multitudes Of bisons slain yearly
le the ceaseless war carried on against them,
Of continued, threatens their exterminatior
and must hereafter cause deep regret ltha
4 been remarked that every addition countr
ry receives from art tends to drive away animal
he fitted olny to flourish in state OF nature
lb but here, in tine absence Of art, the yer
as agents to introduce it--creatures adapte
e. above all Others to human servitude-al
he wantonly destroyed. Their great strengt
a. and docility, when tanned, and their capacli
for being drilled to the yoke, ought surely
IN put some limit to their wholesale butcher.
is Savages kill them for food, while men OF al
O. other shade, who ought to know better, Jol
n in the slaughter for the pleaeure OF the hun
to and sometimes, it would seem, for materl
DO for a praragruh.
IL What one offender has said is apphcab
a to thousands. Describing the grand and te
n rible bearing of an old bull tearing up 4
s. ground; how one ball was flattened by, wit
at out penetrating the skull; low second ba
1t rel drove another bullet into the victims
IN tails and brought on its dying agonies:
O. adds-"I was satisfied, and taking the tongu
If the hunters perquisite, retired" Rejolnil
s. his party, who had abundance OF food,
m left the carcass. as is usual, Tor vultures a
Id bears.
or But for this genus it is doubtful II mi
in had ever permanently emerged from the L
b. est. AS the first ordained and most pro \
Ii able Of bis assistants for working the soil.
Of should never be said that the noblest
American indigenous ruminants have becoI
,il extinct. AS predial labonrs, they belo
he to the most precious Of quadrupedal existe