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MAMMALIA. 75
[24.] 3. Canis familiaris. (Linn.) Domestic Dog,
Cams f . Yar. A. borealis. (Desmarest.) Esquimaux Dog.
Canis familiaris var. N. borealis. Desmarest. Mamm., p. 194.
Eskimaux Dog. Captain Lyon’s Private Journal, p, 332. 244.
leones*, Parry’s Second Voyagey p. 290 and 358.
The great resemblance which the Domestic Dogs of the aboriginal tribes of
America bear to the wolves of the same country, was remarked by the earliest
settlers from Europe f , and has induced some naturalists of much observation to
consider them to be merely half-tamed wolvesj. Without entering at all into the
question of the origin of the Domestic Dog, I may state that the resemblance
between the wolves and the dogs of those Indian nations, who still preserve their
ancient mode of life, continues to be very remarkable, and it is nowhere more so,
than at the very northern extremity of the Continent, the Esquimaux, dogs being
not only extremely like the gray wolves of the Arctic circle, in form and colour, but
also nearly equalling them in size. The dog has generally a shorter tail than the
>volf, and carries it more frequently curled over the hip, but the latter practice is not
totally unknown to the wolf, although that animal, when under the observation of
man, being generally apprehensive of danger or on the watch, seldom displays this
mark of satisfaction. I have, however, seen a family of wolves playing together,
occasionally carry their tails curled upwards.
In the Museum of the Zoological Society there is a specimen of an Esquimaux
dog, which was brought originally from Baffin’s Bay by Captain Ross’s expedition,
and which was afterwards the faithful attendant of Captain Parry’s crews during
the memorable winter of 1819, which they passed on Melville Island. The great
likeness of this specimen to a gray wolf from Carlton House, preserved in the same
case, must be obvious to every one who has seen them, aithough their birth-places
lie upwards of twenty degrees of latitude apart, and they are, therefore, not so
favourable examples to shew the resemblance as if they had been natives of the
same district.
• * In L’Hist. Nat. des Mammiferes, there is a plate and description of a supposed Esquimaux Dog, a present to the
Jardin du E o i; but Capt. Sabine informs us that it is a cross between a real Esquimaux bitch and a Newfoundland
dog.—Appendix, Pang's First Voyage, p. dxxxvi. f Smith, Virginia. + Kaliu.
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