until at length the mixed breed came too resemble in every
respectthe common breed of Finnish sheep.*
All these instances are obtained from among animals in a
state of domestication; a fact of a different • description is reported
by Steller, whom both Pallas and Telesius considered
to be worthy of confidence.1 Steller declares, that in Bfeh-
ring?s Islands, sea-lions or phocee jubatse frequently breed
with the female phocae ursinse or sea-bears.'f*
n Such examples of mixed generation, when brought toge-*-
gether, form a large aggregate, and might, at the first view
of the subject, tempt its to believe, that there is really; id
nature, no impediment to the propagation of hybrid vanimals |
a conclusion which-, indeed, some of the writers cited in the
preceding pages appear desirous of bringing us td admit!
But a question Tiere suggests itself which is not easily to be
answered by those who maintainr this doctrine. If- 'there * is
no principle in nature which impedes the unrestrained inteT-
mixture off species, how is the order and a t the same time
the variety of the animal creation maintained ? If animals
of different’species mixed their breed in the ordinary cburse
of things, and hybrid races were often propagated, the 'ani-
mal world would soon present a scene'of strange- confusion f
its various tribes would become everywhere blended together,
and we should, at length, scarcely discover any genuine
and uncorrupted races.' It may rather be affirmed, that this
universal confusion of all organized tribes would long ago
have been effected. But how opposite is such a statq. of
things from the real fact. The same uniform and regular
propagation of species holds still throughout all nature, nor
are the limits of each kind less definite! than they are supposed
to have been some thousand of yearn.ago. It is plain
that in some manner the preservation of distinct tribes has
* It has often been said, thaï the animals called giummari, or jumars, are pro*
created from parents of the oX and horse kinds. Meckel has shown this to be a
groundless opinion. Anat. Comparée, tom. i. p. 402. Buffon had previously rejected
it. Equally groundless are the stories related of intermixture between dogs
and cats, turkeys and domestic fowls.—Meckel. 1. c.
+ Stdler’s Ausführliche Beschreibung von sonderbaren Meerthieren, Halle. Ru-
dolphi ubi supra.
beep secured, and that universally,,;dr throughout all the different
departments of{t,he organized’creation.
Of whatUnatHre-are 'the? causes by*which the-, intermixture
■of laying tribes sip^d^ffgatu^lly prevented 3 11 would appear*
that several different circumstances fCo-Cperatp to this result.
> In the first place,-it seems evident that races of animals in
the wilthap^patural state are kept distinct not merely by the
sterility of mules, but perhaps' chieflyby 4thei%ct' that such
f e a tu r e s are seMoffi or npvdh’ br'ought$rcftJm I|;
would appear that thejrfe is a, mutualyepugnancfel^pT? at least,a
want of inclination toiinterooursC^ bptWeep anim'alg of different
-Sp^ciesy. while? they remain in their wild and unrest-ruined, bbh-
ditjony which1 prevents- any hlendingyof k i n d s , iiidight.be
■suffipient alohedo account-feptherfactfthatj|b.iybm'4 productions
are > in that state almost unknown*,« ■ Exception-harefJfppbrted
to-the universality oM thiapbservation: 1 have-already cited
the.jfa^t- reported by S t e l l as to the different- tribes.of phocse
among which ,itcM said ^hat^tjftrc^nr^pid^asihnally'fakes
plaice: m It has b.eem< stated,y though I know not unc what hyi-
dence, that-the-stdgr has been known to, follow Ithe, ffem'ale’irpf
■the fallow-deep; In^some^ldbook. obyoyagtesTelations^are to
be found wMc^vCeportihat male ^pjes'of the African and; o f the
Indian sjgeciesdiave.' carried awayi negpc&ses ‘or eth e r .human
female's, ,'api.d have lived with- thtentAnthe- -yveods. I t has been
well observed* by.Ml':Lessan, in his work ,©$Lj Maimnifersy that
all- these,'reports. are defective in e.vid^cpjr|thfy are appa-r
rently- as unfounded as* they^are in every way improbableif*
It would appear that, captivity and restraint^ .or at least
•long exclusion from females* fo£ their own spycies;;^• requisite
in order to prepare animals . of; one tribe „for intercourse with
those1 of anothert kind. It.is ih thisway thatiequine mules
are engendered; Even this, howev-e!*, is not always successful,
as it appeared in the experiments made by theOounfKde
Buffon on the wolf, the fox, and d©g,,iwho repeatedly kept
* This view tH the subject appears long ago' to have occurred to a German naturalist,
who laid it down as a positive rule! “ Wenn sich Thiere von Na<«r mit'em-
ander gatten, so ist solches ein unfehlharfes kennxeichen, dass sie von einetleP-specie
sind.” Frisch, cited by Blumenbach de, Gen. HtV.Ni
j* Lesson, fcst. deeMammifetes et des CMSeaux1.' Les Orangs, iotfi.;Mi.i