Evening star., 1899-11-09
Speculation as to the Origin Of Our
Domestic Animals.
ALL DRAWN FROM WILD SPECIES
Some Kinds Have Been Special.
lied Far More Than Others.
IN A PRIMITIVE FARMYARD
From the London Spectator.

From the London Spectator.
The collection at the Zoo Of all the equine
animals, whether zebras or wild asses. now
found on the globe, gives ample scope for
conjecture as to how the horse as we
know 1t was developed from this material
Perhaps 1t was not developed from them at
all, but from more horse-like animal than
any of them which has disappeared from
wild life, even as the original wild OK has
disappeared from the forests of the west.
But survey of all domestic forms only
leaves the impression more strongly that
the original tribes first drew them from
the wild species with which they were in
contact. 1t is still done by the Lapps and
the jungle tribes of Assam, and the process
as II goes on today affords scope for con-
lectures to what the prehistoric farm
| must have looked like. Probably the farm
yard of one of these early communities did
not contain many varieties of stock neith-
er would the judges -of an agricultural
show have had many classes to deal
with.
II is the very natural tendency of early
efforts at domestication in any form to be
limited to the reclamation of a single spe-
cieS This i'll itself is difficult enough. The
aHbltlon to possess variety of domestic
animals must be a much later idea. 1t is
generally suggested from outside by travel
or the immigration of other owners with a
different class of beast. The kaffirs only
took TO owning horses very gradually
They We're content with their cows even
as beasts of burden: and to this day the
Lapp makes no effort to add to the prime
val herd of reindeer either the ponies or
the cattle which his Morse neighbors have
maintained, in regions as hyperborean
ever since they migrated to the far north
Primitive Reclamation
The raindeer herds of the Lapps. the Sa-
moyeds and the east Siberian tribes con-
tinue to flourish without the slightest at
tempt to improve or alter the wild breed.
The peculiar conditions and climate make
variation or modification unlikely Hence
though the use of the reindeer may be as
eld as the use of the horse. it has left the
reclamation preserved in ice" within the
Arcuc circle. The second example is SINH
lar In kind. In Assam the wild OK or
gayal is regularly taken up from the
jungle and domesticated. The wild cows
are dec0ycd by balls of salt and treated
with this luxury till they mingle with those
"hlch have been previously domesticated
ana ,,ini are gradually incorporated in the herds
winch are driven out into the Jungle to
feed, and brought home 90 be MIXED
In the case of the Indian buffalo aud the
burmese elephant the tame and wild spe-
cies are also seen living in the same for
ests. and recent travel has discovered the
wild snow camel on the cold deserts over
when the tame camels have for ages trans
ported the goods Of the far east to the mar
A''' VI liz "tSI- IIhtept the Dul1dlO and
gayal. none of these animals could he ex-
pected to be much modified by human in
reference. The reindeer elephant and
snow-camei are specialized by nature for
particular conditions, and as it is precisely
for use in those conditions that they are
maintained no one would attempt to intro
duCe differences. No one would try to
make better elephant or a more useful
reindeer because Improvement for their
particular life is scarcely conceivable The
snow-camel has been altered. He has been
made vastly larger and stronger than when
wild. though the connection with the orig
stock iC naip