The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-28
SPRlN6 FROM lOuLY KIND.
MUCH SPECULATION A. no TrzD cnI-
GIN or DoansTIc ANIMALs.


wild asses, now round on the 8iope
gives ample scope for conjecture as
E. to how the horse a. we know It was
development from this material Per
haps Il was not developed from them at all,
but from more horselike animal than any
OF them, which has disappeared from Wild
hfe, even az the original Wild OK has dis
appeared from the forests Of the West.
But q 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 ID stiil done by the Lapps and
the jungle tribes OF Assam and the process
Is 1t goes on today affords scope for con-
seizures as to what the "preA.s.o FORM
must have looked like. Probably the farm
yard Of one Of these early communities did
not contain many varieties Of stock,
neither would the judges Of an agricultural
show have had many Glasses" to deal
with.
1t Is the very natural tendency Of early
efforts at domesticatton In any form to be
limited to the reclamation Of a single spe-
cies. This IN itself IL dificult enough. The
ambition must be much later idea. 1t Is
generally suggested from outside by travel
or the immigration Of other owners with q
different class of beast. The haffirs only
took to owning horses very gradually. They
were content with their cows, even 40
beasts Of burden. and to this day the Lapp
makes no effort to add to the pri.neval
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.
Can't Improve Them.
The reindeer 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
old a. the use of the horse, 1t has left the
type unaltered-an instance Of primitive
reclamation preserved in ice" within the
Arctic circle. The second example Ii SINH
lar in kind. In Assam the wild OK or
gayal Is regularly taken up from the
Jungle and domestfcated. The wild &C W
are decoyed by balls Of salt and tree ed
with this luxury till they mingle With
those which have been previously do
mesticated. and are gradually incorpor-
4 ated into the herds. which are driven
out into the Jungle to feed and brought
home to be MIXED.
In the case Of the Indian buffalo and
che Burmese elephant, the tame ana wild
species are also seen living In the safno
forests, and recent travel has discovered
th4 wild snOw camel on the cold deserts
over which the tame cAmels have for ages
Transported the goods Of the FAR East to
the markets or the West. Except the
buffalo and gayal. none Of these animals
could be expected to be much modified
by human Interference. The reindeer.
elephant and snow camel are specialized
by nature for particular conditions. and
as 1t Is precisely for use In those condi-
lions that they are maintained no one
would attempt to introduce differences.
No one would try to make better ele-
plant or a more useful reindeer, because
apt for hat ~ rv,yov L.
scarcely conceivable. The snow camel
has been altered. He has been made
vastly larger and stronger than when
wild. though the connection with the or
1ginal stock is plain.
Other creatures are not so specialized,
and were altered-probably in no great
time. But first 1t was necessary to
''catch your hare" 1t Is not difficult,
and Is certainly interesting, to picture
the early and ambitious would-be pastor
alist considering which of the animals in
his native wood or on the mountains near
1t would pay best to catch and how he
was to tame them. He certainly went
through some such process in his mind.
In Europe for instance, there were at
least two large wild bovine animals one
q bison, the aurochs. the other a real
wild bull-not bison. Whoever the
first cattle tanners were they certainly
decided to catch the latter, and had
nothing to do with the bison, for they
tanned the one and left the other severely
alone.
1t must have needed some courage to
capture even the dreaded urus in the
Hercynion of Calydonian forests; nor Is
It easy to conjecture how they were able
to keep in their possession herds of ami
mails naturally fierce. and of which the
male descendants are to this day the
most dangerous and uncertain of any do
mesticated animal. The difficulty Of re-
tanning the reclaimed stock is greatly in
creased because all grazing animals. in
< the absence Of inclosure which Is not
universal even In civilized Europe. have
to be led out to feed daily, when they
have every chance of resuming their wild
i state. But 1t is difficult to suppose that
our cattle or those of the East were first
obtained In any other way. There exists
in the Malay states a small wild OK. the
anoa, which Is perhaps the survival of
one of the wild species from which the
smaller Eastern breeds are descended
But 1t is no evidence that that a domestic
species is not descended from wild an
cestor, II this ancestor Is not now exist
ing. We should have known nothing of
the wild bull of Europe were 1t not for
the record OF books and bones, and
ehould not have had these II the breed,
instead of existing down to historic times.
had persisted some 1000 years earlier, as
they may well have done from the plains
I" Of India
The HOG of Commerce.
Pigs were probably a European ere
clamaton." In the tropical East no one
wanted them. for they were neither whole
some as flesh nor givers Of milk. But in
every case, In Europe and Asia, there is
practically only one wild pig, except the
habirussa. which may have been the orr
gin of some Of the Chinese breeds. In any
case. the enterpr!sng domesticator of pigs
in any form must be honored before the
disciple Of Confucius. who Is credited with
having discovered. merely by accident,
their merits when roasted We can quite
understand how the resolve arose. What
could be more natural to the tribesmen of
the village who already possessed a small
and increasing herd of dairy animals re-
claimed from the forest than to follow this