THIS BOOK FORMS PART OF THE ORIGINAL LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHICAN BOUGHT IN EUROPE 1838 TO 1839 BY ASA CRAY / 1 GL , \ / >' ^ x"v PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. THE LIBRARY ENTERTAINING KNOWLEDGE. THE MENAGERIES. Rt. Hon. J. Abercrombie, M.P \V. Allen, Esq., F.R.S. Viscount A1 thorp, M.P. Rt. Hon. Vise. Ashley, M.P. Rt. Hon. Lord Auckland. W. B. Baring, Esq., M.P. Capt.F Beaufort, R.N , F.R.S. C.Bell, Esq. F.R.S..L.& E. T. F. Buxton, Esq., M.P., F.RS. R. Otway Cave, Esq., M.P. John Conolly, M.D. William Coulson, Esq. VVm. Crawford, Esq. Fred. Daniell, Esq , F.R.S. John Davis, Esq., F.R.S. T. Denman, Esq. Hon. G. Agar Ellis, M.A. M.P. T. F Ellis, Esq., M.A. Thomas Falconer, Esq. COMMITTEE. Chairman—H. BROUGHAM, Esq., F.R.S., M.P. Vice Chairman—LORD JOHN RUSSELL, M. P. Treasurer—WILLIAM TOOKE, Esq., F.R.S. I. L. Goldsmid, Esq., F.R.S. B. Gompertz, Esq., F.R.S. H. Hallam, Esq., F.R.S., M.A. M. D- Hill, Esq. Rowland Hill, Esq. Edwin Hill, Esq. Leonard Horner, Esq., F.R.S. David Jardine, Esq. Henry B. Ker, Esq , F R.S. J. G. S. Lefevre. Esq., F.R.S. Edward Lloyd, Esq., M.A. James Loch, Esq.,M.P., F.G.S. George Long, Esq., A.M J. W.Lubbock,Esq. F.R.&L.S. Dr. Lushington. D C.L., M.P. B. H. Malkin, Esq., M.A. Rev. Ed. Maltby,D.D.,F.R,S. James Manning, Esq. F. O. Martin, Esq. J. Marshall, Esq., M.P. John Herman Merivale, Esq. James Mill, Esq James Morrison, Esq., F.G.S, Sir H. Pamell, Bart., M.P. Professor Pattison. T. Spring Rice, Esq., M.P. Dr Roget, Sec R-S. C. E. Rumbold, Esq.,M.P. J. Smith, Esq., MP. VVm. Sturch, Esq. Rt. Hon. Lord Suffleld. C. P. Thomson, Esq., M.P. Dr. A. T. Thomson, F.L.S. A. N. Vigors, Esq., F.R.S. H. W^rburton, Esq., M.P., F.R.S. H. Waymouth, Esq. J. Whishaw,Esq . M.A.,F.R.S. Mr. Serieant Wilde. J. Wood, Esq., M.P. John Wrottesley, Esq. M.A. THOMAS COATES, Secretary, 4, South Square, Gray's Jan. LOCAL COMMITTEES OF THE SOCIETY. Ashburlon—J.F.Kingston, Esq. Birmingham Local Association. Rev. John Corrie, Chair- man. Paul Moon James, Esq., Treasurer. Jos Parkes, Esq. 1 Hon. Wm.Redfern.Esq. J Sees. BrUtol—J. N. Sanders, Esq., Chairman. J. Reynolds, Esq , Treat. J.B. Estlin,Esq F.L.S., Sec. Cambridge—Rev. James Bow. stead, M.A. Rev. Prof. Henslow, M.A., F.L S. & G. S. Rev. Leonard Jenyns, M.A., F.L.S. Rev John Lodge, M.A. Henry Maiden, Esq , M.A. Fred Malkin, Esq., M.A. Rev. Geo. Peacock MA., F.R.S. & G.S. Marmaduke Ramsay, Esq., M.A., F.L.S. Rev. Prof. Sedgwick, M.A., F.R.S & G S. Professor Smyth, M.A. Rev. Connop Thirlwall, M.A. Derby—Joseph Strutt, Esq. William Strutt, Esq. Devonvort—Major J. Hamilton ■Smith, F.R. &L.S. Dublin—Hon. Thos. Vesay. Ediitburgh—R. Greville, LL.D. D Ellis, Esq., F.RS. Capt. Basil Hall, R.N., F.R.S L. & E. Fras. JeHVey, Esq. Prof. Nanier, F.R.S.E. Rev. A. Thomson, D.D. W. Thomson, Esq. Etruria—Jos. Wedgwood, Esq. Exeter—Rev. J. P. Jones. J. Tyrrel, Esq. Glasgow—K. Finlay, Esq. D. Bannatyne, Esq. Rt. Grahame, Esq. Professor Mylne. Alexander McGrlgor, Esq. Charles Macintosh, Esq. F.R.S. Mr. T. Atkinson, Hon. Sec. Hull-D\. Sykes, Esq , M.P. Keighley,Yorkshire—Rev. Til. Diiry, AM. Launceston—Rev. J.Barritt. Leamington Spa— Dr. Loudon. Leeds— Benjamin Gott, Esq. J. Marshall. Jun., Esq. Lewes—J. W. Woollgar, Esq. Liverpool Local Association. Dr. Traill, Chairman. J. MuUeneur, Esq., Treas. Rev. W. Shepherd. J. Ashton Yates, Esq. Maidenhead—R. Goolden, Esq., Manchester Local Association. G-. W. Wood, Esq., CAairwwn B. Hey wood, Esq Treas. T. W- Winstanlcy, Esq. Hon. Sec Sir G. Philips, Bart., M.P. Monmouth—J. H. Moggridge Esq. Newcastle—James Losh, Esq. Rev. W. Turner. Newport—Ab- Clarke, Esq. T. Cooke, Jun., Esq. R G. Kirkpatrick, Esq. Newport Pagnell—Jatmes Mil- lar, Esq. Norwich—Rich. Bacon, Esq. Plymouth—Geo. Harvey, Esq., F.R.S. Portsmouth—E. Carter, Esq. G. Grant. Esq. D. Howard, Esq. Rev. Dr. Inman, Nav. Col. Sheffield—J. H. Abraham,Esq. South Pethcrton—J. NicholeUS, Esq. Tavistock—Rev. W- Evans. John Rundle, Esq. Truro—Wm. Peter, Esq. Waterford—Sir John Newport, Baxt,M P. Wolverhampton - J. Pearson,E*q Worcester—Dr. Corbet, M.D. Dr. Hastings,M.D. C. H. Hebb, Esq. Mr. Henry Marti THE MENAGERIES. QUADRUPEDS, DESCRIBED AND DRAWN FROM LIVING SUBJECTS. VOLUME THE FIRST. SECOND EDITION. LONDON: CHARLES KNIGHT, PALL MALL EAST; LONGMAN, REES, ORME, RROWN, & GREEN, PATERNOSTER ROW J OLIVER &C BOYD, EDINBURGH; T. ATKINSON & CO., GLASGOW; WAKE MAN, DUBLIN J W1LLMER, LIVERPOOL; & BA1NES. & CO., LEEDS. MDCCCXXX. LONDON: PRINTED BY wrLLlAM CLOWES, Stamford street. CONTENTS. THE MENAGERIES. VOLUME I. CHAPTER I. PAGE Introduction . 1 CHAPTER II. The Uses of Menageries ..... 16 Animals of different natures in one cage . . 19 Travelling Menageries .... 22 Menagerie of the Tower . 24 King's Menagerie, at Sand-Pit Gate 25 Menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes . 27 Menagerie of the Zoological Society . 33 CHAPTER III. The Dog—Esquimaux Dog .... . 35 Newfoundland Dog . 47 Mackenzie River Dog .... . 49 Dogs of Kamtschatka .... 54 Australasian Dog ..... . 57 Spanish Mastiffs, from Cuba 61 American Wild Dogs .... . 62 Dogs of Great St. Bernard .... 67 African Blood-hounds .... . 79 Varieties of Dog . . . . , 87 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. PAGE The Wolf 92 Black Wolf 104 Clouded Wolf ....... 305 American Wolves . ...... 106 Mixed Breed of Dog and Wolf . . . .111 The Jackal .113 The Fox—The Cross Fox 117 CHAPTER V. The Hy^ena 120 Hyaena Dog 123 Striped Hyaena 131 Spotted Hyaena 134 CHAPTER VI. The Lion 147 CHAPTER VII. The Tiger ... ..... 184 Lion-Tiger Cubs .192 The Leopard . 193 Black Panther ... . , , .198 The Ocelot ... t ... 199 The Canadian Lynx 201 The Puma 202 The Cat—Domestic 205 Wild Cat 206 CHAPTER VIII, The Camel "t . .217 Camels of San Bossora 221 CHAPTER IX. The Camel (continued) 243 Swift Dromedary 257 CONTENTS. Vii CHAPTER X. PAGE The Camel (continued) 280 Bactrian Camel 312 CHAPTER XL The Llama 323 CHAPTER XII. The Giraffe 334 CHAPTER XIII. Antelopes 359 The Gazelle 363 The Lyre Antelope 364 The Springbok 365 The Nylgau 370 The Gnu 371 The Hartebeest 373 The Chamois 375 CHAPTER XIV. Deer . 383 The Red-Deer 383 The Roe 397 The Fallow-Deer 397 CHAPTER XV. The Rein-Deer 404 H h ^ ILLUSTRATIONS. Page Entrance to the King's Me- nagerie, Sand-pit Gate.... 16 Group of animals 20 Man, owl, and monkey .... 34 Esquimaux dog 33 Esquimaux dogs and sledge 41 Man with dog and cart .... 46 Dog of the Mackenzie viver 49 Australasian dog 57 Spanish mastiffs 61 Dog of St. Bernard 69 African blood-hounds 80 Dancing-dogs 82 Sick tiger and spaniel-bitch 85 Wolf »2 Clouded wolf 105 Tartar mode of hunting wolves 109 Breed of dog and wolf .... 112 jack-all H3 Cross fox H7 Skull of jackall 119 Hyaena dog 123 Striped hyaena 131 Spotted hysena . 134 Skull of hyseoa 146 Lion M7 Lion's paw 173 Grasshopper's foot 174 Lion's fore-foot 176 Ditto 177 Portion of lion's tongue ... 179 Distorted lion 183 Tiger 184 Lion-tiger cubs 192 Leopard 193 Leopardcatching by a mir- ror 197 Black panther 198 Ocelot 199 Canadian lynx 201 Puma 202 Page 40 Indian and puma 204 41 Skull of the lion 216 42 Arabian camel. 217 43 Camel's head 226 44 Horse and Camel of San Rossora 230 45 Group from Denon 242 46 Camels fighting 24 and we can witness, what the observer of them in their native woods and mountains has no oppor- tunity of witnessing,—the interesting modifications of their habits under restraint and discipline, or their changes of character in their association with civilized man. But in the almost exhaustless details of travel- lers, and particularly in the relations of those enter- prising naturalists, both of our own and other conn- INTRODUCTION, 9 tries, who have enlarged the boundaries of natural science by the most enthusiastic devotion to their favourite pursuits, we have the means of comparing the same species in different circumstances, and thus of connecting our own impressions with the facts derived from a more extended observation. We avail oursehes, in common with the other inhabitants of a great metropolis, of the instruction which Mena- geries afford ;—and we view these establishments, not as mere exhibitions for the gratification of a passing curiosity, but as the most effectual means of bringing to our very doors those uncommon specimens of the animals of other climes, which, while they extend* as far as possible, our actual acquaintance with animal nature, may ultimately lead to the domestication of some of those races which, possessing many valuable qualities, have not yet been made available to the pur- poses of man even in his present state of civilization. We propose to proceed in our descriptions of in- dividual animals, without following exclusively an arrangement depending upon what zoologists call the Order, the Family, or the Gams, to which they be- long. We are not about to write a systematic work on Zoology, which shall comprise every specimen of the Animal Kingdom; but with especial reference to the plan of diffusing Entertaining Knowledge, we shall rather attempt to lead the reader to a gradual ac- quaintance with the Science, by instructing him in the peculiarities of individual animals, than to make these peculiarities subordinate to classification. We apprehend that, in adopting this course, we pursue a natural and interesting mode of communicating a popular knowledge of the subject. It is frequently better to lead men from the example to the principle, than from the abstract principle to the example. This is the mode in which a practical knowledge is JO THE MENAGERIES. best attained, in all things. A naturalist, when he first begins to form a museum, collects whatever rare and valuable specimen may fall in his way. He par- tially arranges them, as far as may be convenient; and he is thus led on to attempt a perfect classifica- tion, when his collection is sufficiently advanced to render the want of such an arrangement embarrassing. In the same way, when our readers are familiarized with the individual characters of a considerable number of animals, (in the selection of which we shall neither utterly disregard, nor slavishly follow, a scientific order,) they will begin to feel the real value of classification: and thus, whilst their amuse- ment has been consulted by keeping back the mere nomenclature of Science, in the first instance, a complete analytical index upon scientific principles will ultimately collect all our scattered specimens into Orders and Genera; and this will be done at the very time when a knowledge of the Classifica- tion of Zoology will become with them an object of anxious desire, instead of appearing dry and techni- cal, and fit only for anatomical students and lovers of hard names. There are, however, a few of the great principles of Zoology, upon which the systems of classification now in most esteem are founded, which we may pro- perly explain, in as brief and simple a manner as possible, before we proced to individual descriptions. The Animal Kingdom (scientifically called king- dom, to distinguish it as a portion of the world of nature in general) is divided into vertebrated and invertebrated animals. The term vertebrated is de- rived from vertebrcB, the Latin name for the bones of the spine. Vertebrated animals are, therefore, those which possess a spine, or bony covering of the spinal mar- INTRODUCTION. 11 row, on the anterior part of which the cranium or co- vering of the brain rests. To the sides of the vertebrae are attached ribs, which form the frame-work of the body. Animals of this division have all red blood; a muscular heart; a mouth with a transverse open- ing, and of which the jaws move in the same plane; and distinct organs of vision, smell, hearing-, and taste, all situated in cavities of the head. They have never more than four limbs. The division comprises Mammalia, Birds, Reptiles, and Fishes. The word Mammalia (having teats) applies to all animals which suckle their young, and is the proper scientific term for those which are popularly called Quadrupeds; for the latter term is an incorrect one, when applied ex- clusively to viviparous animals (producing their young in a living state) with four legs, as many of the Rep- tiles have also four legs. Whenever, therefore, we popularly use the term Quadrupeds, speaking gene- rally of the class which we are at present about to describe, we mean Mammiferous Quadrupeds. The Invertebrated animals are those which have no vertebra?; of all these the blood is white. They are scientifically divided into Molluscous animals, in which the muscles are attached to the skin, with or without the protection of a shell—such as snails and slugs; Articulated animals, in which the covering of the body is divided into rings or segments, to the interior of which the muscles are attached—compre- hending all insects and worms; and Radiated ani- mals, in which the organs of motion or sensation radiate from a common centre—such as star-fish. Each of the above four classes of Vertebrated animals have peculiarities of organization, by which they are fitted for the respective states in which they exist. The various nature of their movements is always proportioned to the quantity of respira- tion distinguishing each class. They thus either 12 THE MENAGERIES. walk or run upon the earth, or fly through the air, or creep upon the ground, or swim in the water, as their quantity of respiration is moderate as in quadrupeds, or great as in birds, or feeble as in reptiles, or small, but modified by peculiar arrangements, as in fishes. Quadrupeds, as we before said, suckle their young, and are viviparous. The whale, and several other species, which are popularly regarded as fishes, be- long to the class Mammalia, on account of the great characteristic of suckling their young. Birds, Rep- tiles, and Fishes, being oviparous, or laying eggs, leave their young to other nourishment than that of their own bodies. The peculiar organization of Quadrupeds will be described as occasion offers, in our notice of the indi- vidual specimens. The Orders into which they are now more generally divided are determined, first, by the organ of touch, which regulates the ability of the animal to seize upon any object, and upon which its dexterity mainly depends; and, secondly, by those of mastication, which prescribe the nature of the food proper to each species. Linnaeus, whose authority as a writer on Natural History was for a long time con- sidered unquestionable, divided the orders of qua- drupeds solely according to the peculiarities of their teeth; but this system, although natural to a certain, extent, has been considered as producing great ano- malies, and unnatural combinations. The systems of Cuvier, Blumenbach, and other distinguished natural- ists of our own day, are founded upon a consideration of the peculiarities both of the teeth and of the organs of touch. These systems, therefore, being formed with especial reference to the two great distinctions which determine the most important habits of the animal, are called * natural systems.' Without offering an opinion upon the relative merits of the more modern systems of classification, we subjoin, for the present, a general INTRODUCTION. 13 view of the principles which have guided the zoolo- gists of the best authority. The class of Quadrupeds admits of a division into two tribes:— I. Those whose extremities are divided into fingers or toes, scientifically called Unguiculatay from the Latin word for nail. II. Those whose extremities are hoofed, scien- tifically called Ungulata, from the Latin word for hoof. L The extremities of the first tribe are armed with claws or nails, which give them a capability of grasp- ing objects, of climbing, of burrowing. The animals thus distinguished are susceptible of great variations in their modes of subsistence; which variations are partly determined by difFerent modifications of the power of touch, and partly by differences in the form of the cheek-teeth. Some have extremities formed for grasping, having the faculty of opposing a thumb to the other fingers, which faculty resides in, or is communicated by, that portion of animal structure which is properly called a hand. Man possesses this faculty in the highest perfection; but monkeys and bats are distinguished by having all their extremities capable of this power; and they are thus called Quadrumana, or four- handed. The remaining orders of the first tribe have no thumb capable of free motion; and they are classed according to the form of their cheek-teeth, which de- termines their choice of food. The Quadrimiana> and the Carnivora, (eaters of flesh,) have molar or grinding-teeth, (which we call cheek-teeth,) canine-teeth, and cutting-teeth. Those c 14 THE MENAGERIES. which have the cheek-teeth feed partly, or wholly, on flesh, and these teeth are adapted for cutting that substance; while the jaws are fitted together so as to move in the manner of a pair of scissors, and are in- capable of any other motion than that of opening and closing again in a vertical direction. Some of these carnivorous animals, as well as other orders of the fingered quadrupeds, walk on the soles of the feet, as bears, and are called Plcmligrada; some on the ex- tremities of the feet, as cats, and are called Digiti- grada; and some are web-footed, as seals, and are called Palmata. The remaining animals of the first tribe want the canine-teeth, and have cutting-teeth in the front of the mouth, as rats and rabbits. They are called Rodentia by Cuvier, which signifies gnaw- ing; and Glires by Linnaeus. Cuvier makes another division, called Edentata, which are defective in the incisive teeth, and of which some want the canine- teeth, and some are even destitute of teeth altogether. Amongst the Unguiculata, or fingered Quadrupeds, there are very few which are used by man as food. Many of them are noxious or ferocious. The Dog and the Cat are the only species of the carnivorous orders which have been rendered domestic ; although many have their natural instincts subdued or re- strained by their contact with mankind. II. The extremities of the Ungulata {Hoofed tribe) are exclusively employed to support and move the body. These animals do not possess the power of grasping objects, of climbing, or burrowing. They are all Herbivorous, or feeding on vegetables. Their teeth are fitted for the mastication of grain or roots, by having a flattish round upper surface; and their jaws possess the capacity of moving in the same plane. Their teeth are also of unequal hardness, so that they have the power of crushing, like the unequal surfaces INTRODUCTION. 15 of a millstone. Cuvier divides the Hoofed animals into, 1. Pachydermata, or thick-skinned, amongst which are the horse and the elephant; and, 2. Ru- minantia, or those which ruminate, or chew the cud, such as cows and sheep. Amongst this tribe, man, whether in a rude or a civilized state, principally and almost exclusively finds his food, from wild or from domesticated animals. This tribe also furnishes him with the most valuable assistance in agriculture, in the cha^e, and in the carriage of commodities. In giving this very brief, and therefore imperfect, sketch of the leading principles of Classification-, we have only thrown out a few hints for such of our readers as may desire, in the outset, to view the sub- ject of Zoology as a science. As we proceed, we shall endeavour not to disregard the claims of Classi- fication; in not making them prominent, we desire only to divest the subject of such technicalities as might interfere with the object of combining enter- lainme.nt with instruction: and we shall seek to afford materials for adopting the best of the pre- vailing systems, rather than undertake to pronounce, without hesitation upon the superiority of any one of them. c2 Entrance to the King's Menagerie, Sand-Pit Gate, neat TVindsjr. Chapter II. THE USES OF MENAGERIES. The literal meaning1 of the word Menagerie points ont one of the principal objects of a collection of various living animals. Menagerie is derived from the French word menager, from which we derive our English verb, to manage. The name Menagerie was originally applied to a place for domestic ani- mals, with reference to their nurture and training: it now means any collection of animals. It may be implied, therefore, that the animals in a Menagerie are not placed there merely for safe confinement, but that by care and kindness their noxious or fero- cious propensities may there be restrained or subdued, and by constant, discipline their habits may there be rendered useful, or at least inoffensive, to man. Daubenton, and other distinguished naturalists, have believed that the ferocity of many of the carnivorous animals may be entirely conquered, in the course of USES OF MENAGERIES. 17 time; that they only flee from man through fear, and attack and devour other animals through the pressing calls of hunger; and that the association with human beings, and an abundant supply of food, would render even the lion, the tiger, and the wolf, as manageable as our domestic animals. In support of this theory, it may be observed, that although the tiger and the domestic cat have many properties in common, the conquest of the latter species is now complete; and, further, that some of the most ferocious animals which have been bred in a state of confinement, or taken exceedingly young, have become perfectly tractable and harmless, with those who have rightly understood their natures. The accidents which have sometimes occurred to the attendants of wild beasts, and which are attri- buted to the treachery of their dispositions, have generally proceeded from an ignorance of their habits. The lion, for instance, is not an animal of acute hearing, and he is therefore awakened with difficulty, particularly after feeding. If he be sud- denly aroused, he instantly loses all presence of mind, and flies off in the direction in which he hap- pens to be lying. A few years ago, one of the keepers at Exeter Change was killed, through his ignorance of this peculiarity, which is well known to the Bushmen of Africa. * The keeper, going into the den of a lion, and suddenly awakening him, the ani- mal, seeing no mode of escape, killed the man under the influence of his natural terror. This unfortunate circumstance did not proceed from any unconquer- able ferocity in the lion; for, in general, he was obe- dient, and even* affectionate. The habits of his species were not thoroughly understood by those around him; if it had been otherwise, the keeper * Seep. 160, c3 18 THE MENAGERIES. would not have placed himself in a position where the discipline by which the lion had been rendered grate- ful would be useless, from the stronger force of a na- tural propensity. But if it be too much to hope that the ferocious animals may be subdued to our uses, through the education which well-conducted Menageries would afford, it cannot be doubted that such establishments offer most interesting opportunities for observing the peculiarities of a great variety of creatures, whose in- stincts are calculated to excite a rational curiosity, and to fill the mind with that pure and delightful knowledge which is to be acquired in every depart- ment of the study of nature. The commonest ani- mals offer to the attentive observer objects of the deepest interest. When Montaigne, playing with his cat, says in his quaint way, "who knows whether puss is not more diverted with me than I am with puss," his mind wanders into those speculations with regard to the delicate lines which divide instinct from reason, which must naturally arise to every one who attentively contemplates the dispositions of the inferior parts of the living creation. To those who philosophize, or to those who do not, the in- stinct and intelligence of animals are always interest- ing; and to a feeling mind, they are doubly so. The poet Cowper, when he sat for hours in his study watching the gambols of his three tame hares, forgot that gloom which constitutionally preyed upon him, in his sympathy with the innocent happiness of the poor beings whom he had taught, first not to fear him, and afterwards to love him. These three hares, and his spaniel and cat, formed Cowper's Menagerie, and it afforded him both delight and instruction. All associations between animals of opposite na- tures are exceedingly interesting; and those who train animals for public exhibition know how attractive are THEIR USES, i9 such displays of the power of discipline over the strength of instinct. These extraordinary arrange- ments are sometimes the effect of accident, and some- times of the greater force of one instinct over the lesser force of another. A rat-catcher having caught a brood of \oung rats alive gave them to his cat, who had just had her kittens taken from her to be drowned. A few days afterwards, he was surprised to find the rats in the place of the drowned kittens, being suckled by their natural enemy. The cat had a hatred to rats, but she spared these young rats to afford her the relief which she required as a mother. The rat-catcher exhibited the cat and her nurslings to considerable advantage. * A somewhat similar exhi- bition exists at present. There is a little Menagerie in London, where such odd associations may be wit- nessed upon a more extensive scale, and more sys- tematically conducted, than in any other collection of animals with which we are acquainted. Upon the Surrey side of Waterloo Bridge, or sometimes, though not so often, on the same side of Southwark Bridge, may be daily seen a cage about five feet square, containing the quadrupeds and birds which are represented in the annexed print. The keeper of this collection, John Austin, states that he has em- ployed seventeen years in this business of training creatures of opposite natures to live together in content and aflection. And those years have not been unprofitably employed! It is not too much to believe, that many a person who has given his half- penny to look upon this show, may have had his mind awakened to the extraordinary effects of habit and of gentle discipline, when he has thus seen the cat, the rat, the mouse, the hawk, the rabbit, the guinea- pig, the owl, the pigeon, the starling, and the spar- * Broderip. 2Q THE MENAGERIES. row, each enjoying, as far as can be enjoyed in con- finement, its respective modes of life, in the com- pany of the others,—the weak without fear, and the strong without the desire to injure. It is impossible to imagine any prettier exhibition of kindness than is here shown :—the rabbit and the pigeon play- fully contending for a lock of hay to make up their nests; the sparrow sometimes perched on the head of the cat, and sometimes on that of the owl—each its natural enemy; and the mice playing about with perfect indifference to the presence either of cat, or hawk, or owl. The modes by which the man has effected this, are, first, by keeping all the creatures well fed; and, secondly, by accustoming one species to the society of the other at a very early period of their lives. The ferocious instincts of those who prey on the weaker are never called into action; their nature is subdued to a systematic gen- tleness; the circumstances by which they are sur- rounded are favourable to the cultivation of their kindlier dispositions; all their desires and pleasures are bounded by their little cage; and though the old cat sometimes takes a stately walk on the parapet of the bridge., he duly returns to his companions, with whom he has been so long happy, without at all thinking that he was born to devour any of them. This is an example, and a powerful one, of what may be accomplished by a proper education, which rightly estimates the force of habit, and confirms, by judicious management, that habit which is most de- siderable to be made a rule of conduct. The principle is the same, whether it be applied to children or to brutes. The travelling menageries, which form the chief attraction of country fairs, and which divide the popular applause with tumblers and conjurers, are THEIR USES. 21 22 THE MENAGERIES. amongst the most rational gratifications of the curi- osity of fhe multitude. All classes of persons go to see these exhibitions; and it is not too much to assert that many come away with their understandings enlarged, and their stores of useful knowledge in- creased. The animals may be confined in miserable dens, where their natural movements are painfully restrained; the keepers may be lamentably ignorant, and impose upon the credulous a great number of false, stories, full of wonderment and absurdity: but still the people see the real things about which they have heard and read, (though they are not always pointed out to them by their right names,) and they thus acquire a body of facts which make a striking impression upon their memories and understandings. The sagacity oi* the elephant, and the lofty port of the lion, can never be forgotten. The actual inspection of such collec- tions of animals too gradually obliterates the impres- sions of those false accounts which the early naturalists multiplied with a fond credulity, and which, like all other mysterious stories, took the firmest hold of the popular mind. The people see in these menageries a great number of rare animals, brought together from distant parts of the earth, whose habits are very curious and surprising : but they never see the Griffin, which is represented as half beast and half bird; nor the Centaur, which the poets have described as half horse and half man; nor the Phoenix, which is drawn as a bird, and is stated to perish by fire at the end of a hundred years, and then to rise again from its own ashes. The people thus gradually learn to disbelieve the existence of these things, because the fables to which they have trusted never receive a confirmation from any living specimen; whilst, on the other hand, the statements of intelligent travellers and natural- ists, which they may have also heard of, are abun- dantly proved by the evidence of their own senses. THEIR USES. 23 To acquire the habit of discriminating between what is true and what is false—to learn to separate fable from fact—to perceive what parts of literature be- long1 to the freaks of the imagination, and what to diligent inquiry and sober reasoning—this is the very foundation of all valuable knowledge; and to obtain this habit of mind is one of the happiest conse- quences of that habit of observation which, as we na\e already said, a love for the study of nature is so fitted to call forth. The commercial intercourse of this country with ^hat may be almost called the whole world, has afforded us, during the last century, unrivalled op- portunities of obtaining the rarest specimens of animals, from whatever region they are naturally found in. Our immense possessions in Asia, and our systematic expeditions of discovery to Africa, have furnished the most extensive fields for the re- searches of naturalists. Within the last thirty years especially, our extended colonization of Australasia has added many new specimens to our national col- lections; but, till very lately, the acquisition of rare animals has been entirely left to individual enter- prise. A tiger or a bear, for instance, has been caught young, and intrusted as a speculation to the captain of a merchant vessel, to be brought to Eng- land. The proprietor of the valuable collection at Exeter Chauge, or some one of the owners of the three or four travelling menageries in the kingdom, bought the animal at a large price, if it suited his purpose; and by such means, as we have seen, a popular knowledge of this branch of Natural History has been imperfectly kept up. The spirit of com- mercial speculation has thus, as in many other mat- ters amongst us, supplied the place, and sometimes \ery admirably, of a fostering care on the part of the Government. It might be considered that the Royal 24 THE MENAGERIES. Menagerie in the Tower of London was an exception to this remark; but that collection has always fluctu- ated in value according to the spirit of the individual entrusted with its management, which spirit has mainly depended upon the taste of the public for such exhibitions. The Menagerie of the Tower is now very flourish- ing. It contains some extremely fine specimens of more than forty quadrupeds, and of various birds and reptiles. The dens in which the animals are kept are tolerably commodious, and great attention is paid to their cleanliness. This collection has lately been made the subject of a very interesting volume. But the Tower Menagerie was not always as valuable as at the present time. Iu 1822, the collection comprised only an elephant, a bear, and two or three birds. It had gradually declined in value for half a century; in some degree, perhaps, from the force of popular prejudice, which was accustomed to consider it only an occupation and amusement for children to make a visit to the " Lions in the Tower." A better system of education has instructed us that there is nothing in nature beneath the attention of a reasonable being; that some of the wisest and most philosophic of man- kind have devoted themselves with a passionate ardour to the cultivation of Natural History as a science; and that if children feel the deepest in- terest in safely beholding those ferocious animals which form such attractive objects in many of the stories dedicated to their use, that interest may be readily carried far beyond the gratification of a passing curiosity, and may become the excitement to the acquisition of a great deal of real knowledge, capable of being presented in the most captivating form. In the barbarous ages, and till within the last century, beasts of prey were considered the especial THEIR USES* 25 property of king's, as something' typical of their power and greatness. In the fortress where the crown of our ancient raonarchs was kept, were also confined their lions. These were generally main- tained at the expense of the people, and sometimes of the civic officers of London, by special writ; and the keeper of the lions was a person of rank attached to the court. Gradually, this exertion of the royal prerogative fell into decay; and if a foreign potentate presented a tiger or a leopard to the King*, as was often the case with the rulers of the maritime states of Africa, the animal was g-iven to the keeper of the menacrerie to add to his stock of attractions for the public. Further, no care was taken of the collection on the part of the Sovereign or the Government. It is highly creditable to the present keeper that he has judiciously availed himself of the growing" taste for zoological pursuits, to render his collection in some degree worthy of a country possessing such op- portunities of obtaining the finest specimens of ani- mal life which the world can afford. The beasts of prey which are presented to the King are, in nearly every case, sent to the Tower; but his present Majesty, during the last ten years, has formed a very fine collection of such quadrupeds as are more capable of domestication, and of birds, in Windsor Great Park, at a Lodge called Sand-Pit Gate*. Before the establishment of the gardens of the Zoological Society, this royal collection offered almost the only opportunity of seeing many of the rarer species of animals in their natural condition. * The King's Collection is open on Mondays and Saturdays to all persons making- application at the Sand-Pit Gate Lodge, which is situated about twenty-two miles from London, close by the road called the Forest Road to Reading. The Vignette at the head of this chapter will be some guide to the stranger in finding the spot. D 26 THE MENAGERIES. In this menagerie they are not pent up in miserable dens, but have large open sheds, with spacious pad- docks, to range in: water in plenty; and spreading trees to shade them from the noon-day sun. The collection is open to the public gratuitously; and here may be seen the giraffe, various species of ante- lopes and deer, kangaroos in great numbers, zebras, quaggas, ostriches, and emeus rearing their young as fearless as the barn-door fowl. The Duke of Devonshire has, at his villa at Chiswick, a small collection, which, as in the instance of the Windsor Park Menagerie, offers the delightful exhibition of several quadrupeds and birds exercising their natural habits almost without restraint. At Chiswick, there was, for many years, a particularly sagacious female elephant, which followed her keeper about the field in which her spacious hut was placed, knelt down at his bidding, and bore him on her neck in the manner which we read of in books of oriental history or travel This interesting animal died last autumn. (1828.) Whatever advantages students of natural history, artists, and the public generally, may have derived from private collections, and from the imperfect ex- hibitions to which we have alluded, it was manifestly desirable that a National Menagerie and Museum should be established in London. The greater the opportunities of forming such collections, the greater the disgrace of neglecting them. In this country, such national institutions are generally formed by the spirit of individuals associating together for the advancement of some great public good; and it is thus that other countries, with whose govern- ments establishments connected with science gene- rally originate, have commonly preceded us in the career of scientific improvement. We do the work as well ultimately, but we go about it more slowly. The Kings of France had, at Versailles, such a me- THEIR USES. 2£ nagerie as the Kings of England have had in the Tower. It was at this menagerie that BufFon and Daiibenton studied. In 1793 the collection was so reduced, that it consisted only of a quagga, a bubale, (the cervine of Pennant,) a rhinoceros, a lion, and a hooded pigeon. The celebrated St, Pierre, who succeeded BufFon as keeper of the Jardin des Plantes, where there was a splendid museum of natural history, laboured most assidu- ously to add a menagerie to the establishment. He succeeded; and the collection was begun with the remnant of the royal collection at Versailles. The menagerie of Paris is now one of the principal attrac- tions of that capital. In the number of its speci- mens, in the convenience of its arrangements, and in the large scale of its accommodation for the animals according to their respective natures, it is infinitely superior to any other menagerie, and is therefore deservedly visited by all foreigners. St. Pierre, amongst the arguments which he employed for the formation of this establishment, says, " Colbert at- tracted many strangers to our capital by the fetes which he gave to Lewis XIV.; a free nation ought to invite them thither by the schools of useful know- ledge which it opens to the human race." His argu- ments were successful. What was begun at Paris in 1793, for the study of natural history from living subjects, has been imitated in London in 1S2S; and we doubt not that our own institution will be as successful as its precursor. The one is maintained at the public cost, the other by individual subscrip- tion; but the popular desire for knowledge will, we trust, overcome this inequality. The establishment of the menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes has afforded opportunities for the study of natural history, which have advanced the branch of the science that relates to quadrupeds in a most d2 28 THE MENAGERIES. remarkable degree. The accurate descriptions of Cuvier, of GeofFroy, of Desmarest, and of other distinguished naturalists of France, are principally to be ascribed to their diligent studies in this school. BulFon was one of the most eloquent of natural his- torians. Wherever he describes, from actual observa- tion, the appearance, the instincts, and the habits of animals, he is interesting not only to the learned, but to the least informed reader. The greater part of what is really valuable in his writings is derived from the accurate study of some individual specimen; and his most splendidly coloured portraits are those for which he had living models. But such opportuni- ties of gathering materials for fresh and vivid descrip- tion, from real animated nature, were oftentimes wanting to Buffon. He occasionally writes from vague, and uncertain narratives; and then, as might be expected, he is superficial and full of false theories. His successors have had more extended opportunities of observation; and the accuracy of their facts, there- fore, leaves us less reason to regret the absence of those charms of style which render BulFon one of the most delightful of writers. The five animals which remained of the menagerie of Versailles were offered to St. Pierre, as keeper of the Cabinet of Natural History, to form skeletons to be added to that collection. He wisely seized upon the opportunity to combat a prejudice which then ex- isted, and which even still exists, that stuffed speci- mens, and anatomical preparations, are quite as valu- able for the purposes of science as living animals. Comparative, anatomy, which is doubtless an im- portant part of natural science, may certainly be studied in museums; but when the argument, is car- ried further by those naturalists who say, " It is suf- ficient to have the means of examining dead animals, for by such we may learn to distinguish the species THEIR USES. 29 and the kinds of each, as well as from living speci- mens," the indignant answer of St. Pierre is worthy attention : * "Those who have studied nature only in books can see only their books in nature; they look upon the natural world only to find therein the names and the characters of their systems. If they are botanists, they are satisfied to have discovered a plant of which some author has spoken; and having assigned it to the class and the order which he has pointed out, they gather it, and spreading it between two bits of grey paper, they sit down content with their know- ledge and their researches. They do not form a herbal to study nature, but they study nature to form a herbal. It is in the same way that they make col- lections of animals, that they may learn their genera and their species, and treasure up their names. "But can he be a lover of nature who thus studies her wonderful works? How great a difference is there between a dead vegetable, dry, faded, dis- coloured, whose stems and leaves and flowers are crumbling to powder, and a living vegetable, full of sap, which buds, flowers, gives forth perfume, fruc- tifies, and sows itself again—maintains an universal harmony with the elements, with insects, with birds, with quadrupeds, and, combining with a thousand other vegetables, crowns our hills and adorns our river banks! "Can we recognize the verdure and the flowers of a meadow in a haystack? or the majesty of the trees of a forest jn a bundle of faggots? The animal loses by death even more of its characteristics than the vegetable: for the animal has received a more vigo- rous portion of life. Its principal qualities vanish * Memoire sur la Menagerie. (Euvres de St. Pierre3torn, xii. p. 654. Paris, 1818. D 3 30 * THE MENAGERIES. its eyes are shut, its pupils are dim, its limbs are stiff; it is without warmth, without motion, without feeling, without voice, without instinct. What a difference between the animal who enjoys the light, distinguishes objects, moves towards them, calls the female, couples, makes its nest or lair, brings up its young, defends them from their enemies, congregates with its kind, and gives music to our woods and animation to our meadows! Do you recognize the lark, gay as the breath of morning, who, 'at heaven's gate sings,' when he is suspended from the beak upon a bit of packthread; or the bleating sheep and the labouring ox in the well-dressed limbs of a butcher's shop? The best prepared animal only offers a stuffed skin and a skeleton. The life is wanting, by which he was classed in the animal king- dom. The staffed wolf may preserve his teeth, but the peculiar instinct which determined his ferocious character is gone, and he then scarcely differs from the friendly dog." There is much truth in these remarks, and their good sense ought not to be overlooked, though the style in which it is conveyed be somewhat declama- tory. For all popular purposes, menageries offer much more interesting modes of studying some parts, and those the most important, of the animal kingdom, than the best museum. In this sense the homely saying is quite correct, that "a living dog is better than a dead lion." The value of menageries, not only for popular but for scientific study, depends, however very much upon the arrangements which determine their con- struction and regulation. The great object should be, as far as possible, to exhibit the animals in their natural state. It has been a favourite plan with many naturalists to establish a garden, in which the animal should find himself surrounded by his natural THEIR USES. 31 food—where the beaver should live amidst a rivulet and a bank of poplars> and the rein-deer browse upon his native lichen. Great difficulties, of course, present themselves to the completion of such a pro- ject; and though its execution were compatible with any reasonable expense, the difficulty of adjusting the temperature of our climate to the plant and the animal would be very considerable. Yet, in a na- tional menagerie, much ought to be attempted, gra- dually, but systematically, to realize such a desirable object as the exhibition of animals in their natural habits. If the cat tribe are pent up in close dens, what idea can be formed of the crouch and the spring which characterize both their sport and their seizure of prey? With every regard to their security, they might have a sufficient range to exhibit this peculiar property. We can acquire no adequate notion of the kangaroo in a cage; but in a paddock its remarkable bound at once fixes our attention and curiosity. In a very interesting book, "Waterton's Wanderings in South America,'' there is an account of the sloth, which shows that we can know nothing of some animals unless we see them in their natural condi- tion. This traveller delights in wonderful stories, which he tells in a style approaching to exaggeration; but there is no reason to doubt the general accuracy of his descriptions of natural objects. The sloth is usually described as slow in his movements, and as in a perpetual state of pain; and from his supposed inaction his name is derived. And why is this? He had not been seen in his native woods by those who described him: he was resting upon the floor of some place of confinement. His feet are not formed for walking on the ground; they cannot act in a perpendicular direction; and his sharp and long- claws are curved. He can only move on the ground by pulling himself along by some inequalities on the 32 * THE MENAGERIES. surface, and therefore on a smooth floor he is per- fectly wretched. He is intended to pass his life in trees; he does not move or rest upon the branches, but under them; he is constantly suspended by his four leg's, and he thus travels from branch to branch, eating his way, and sleeping- when he is satisfied. To put such a creature in a den is to torture him, and to give false notions of his habits. If the sloth be placed in a menagerie, he should have a tree for his abode; and then we should find that he is neither habitually indolent nor constantly suffering. The delight of observing wild animals in their natural state is great in proportion to its rarity. This delight is one reason that enterprising travellers,— such as Waterton, whom crocodiles and serpents could not deter from pursuing his researches, and as Wilson, the historian of American birds, who spent his life in the woods,—describe with a freshness and truth which can only proceed from a thorough love of their subject. Wc can understand how this de- sire to observe the natural, unrestrained habits of animal life should grow almost into a passion. The difference between the same animal under confine- ment, and when enjoying its native liberty, is striking enough to make an enthusiastic man willing to de- vote his life to those diligent observations of "the free denizens of the woods," which are so valuable to all who have to write on natural history with less favourable means of examination. We lately saw this difference exemplified in a striking manner. At the residence of a private gentleman at Limehouse, there are three monkies in a state of remarkable freedom. We went to see them, with but few antici- pations of pleasure; for a monkey, as monkeys are ordinarily seen, confined to a box, shews little but the cunning and rapacity of his race. The monkeys at Limehouse were let loose into an orchard, in - THEIR USES. S3 which there were some high and spreading elms, Their gambols were the most diverting that could be imagined. They pursued each other to the top of the highest branch, where they sat fearlessly chat- tering; and in an instant ihey would throw them- selves down, with unerring aim, some twenty feet, and, resting upon the bough which they had selected to leap at, would swing to and fro with manifest delight. We shall not be satisfied again with a menagerie which has not trees for its monkeys to sport in. The menagerie of the Zoological Society will doubtless become the national menagerie, and in the course of a few years it may rival that of Paris. Our opportunities for forming the finest collection in the world are unbounded; and the taste for natural his- tory which distinguishes the public mind, in itself will create ample funds for its gratification. It will be the object of this little book to promote that taste, by giving faithful descriptions of living animals, by rejecting all fabulous and doubtful relations, and by- leading onwards to a more scientific knowledge, through the medium of what appears to combine the entertaining with the useful. We first desire to fix the habit of attention upon natural objects. To effect this, we shall attempt to present some of those objects to the mind in a wray that may excite a rational curiosity towards what is rare and wonderful,—never forgetting to direct it, at the same time, towards what is familiar, but not less remarkable. Every thing in nature is full of instruction. The intelli- gence of the elephant, and the instinct of the spider, are equally deserving of observation and enquiry; and are equally examples of the wisdom and power of Him who said "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creepino; thing and beast of the earth after his kind." It is 34 , THE MENA.GERIES. for this cause, especially, that we consider attention can never be ill bestowed, whether it be directed to the habits of our humble companions, such as the dog and the horse, or excited by the rarities of foreign lands, as viewed in menageries. In such establish- ments there are various measures of attraction, as we have already seen; but there are none without some interest. Even the wandering Italian, who exhibits his bird and his dog to every bystander, has some- thing to shew which may exemplify the force of instinct or of habit, and thus teach us some one of the lessons which the whole Book of Nature offers to him who will read it aright. Chapter III. THE DOG. Esquimaux Dog. Canis familiaris Borcalis.—Desmarest. In the garden of the Zoological Society are some remarkably fine specimens of dogs; and one of the finest and most interesting is the dog of the Esqui- maux. Peter (so he is called) was brought to Eng- land by Lieut. Henderson, R.N., one of the com- panions of Captain Ross. This variety of dog most nearly resembles the shepherd's dog, and the wolf- dog. The ears are short and erect; the tail is bushy, and carried in a graceful curve over the back: in this particular the Esquimaux dog principally differs from the wolf of the same district, whose tail is carried be- tween his legs in running. The tail turned upward is the distinguishing characteristic of the domestic dog, 36 v THE MENAGERIES. of every variety. It has been considered by some naturalists, that these dogs are wolves in a state of domestication. The anatomy of both, for the most part, corresponds; the wolf is, however, larger, and more muscular. The average height of the Esqui- maux dog is one foot, ten inches; the length of his body, from the occiput (the back of the head) to the insertion of the tail, two feet, three inches; and of the tail itself, one foot, one inch. The dog in the Zoological Garden is of a white colour, with some- what of a yellow tinge. Some of the Esquimaux dogs are brindled, some black and white, some al- most entirely black, and some are of a dingy red. Their coat is thick and furry; the hair, in winter, being from three to four inches long: nature has also provided them with an under coating of close soft wool, at that season, which they lose in spring; so that they endure their climate with comparative com- fort. They never bark; but have a long melancholy howl, like the wolf. They are familiar and domes- tic; but snarl and fight amongst themselves, much more than dogs in general. The specimen in the Zoological Garden is good-tempered, and delights to be noticed aud caressed, even by strangers. The Esquimaux, a race of people inhabiting the most northerly parts of the American continent, and the adjoining islands, are dependent upon the ser- vices of this faithful species of dog for most of the few comforts of their lives; for assistance in the chase; for carrying burdens; and for their rapid and certain conveyance over the trackless snows of their dreary plains. The dogs, subjected to a constant dependence upon their masters, receiving scanty food and abun- dant chastisement, assist them in hunting the seal, the rein-deer, and the bear. In the summer, a single dog carries a weight of thirty pounds, in attending his master in the pursuit of game: in winter, yoked THE DOG. 37 in numbers to heavy sledges, they drag five or six persons at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour, and will perform journeys of sixty miles a day. What the rein-deer is to the Laplander, this dog is to the Esquimaux. He is a faithful slave, who grumbles, but does not rebel; whose endurance never tires; and whose fidelity is never shaken by blows and starving. These animals are obstinate in their na- ture: but the women, who treat them with more kindness than the men, and wrho nurse them in their helpless state, or when they are sick, have an un- bounded command over their affections; and can thus catch them at any time, and entice them from their huts, to yoke them to the sledges, even when they are suffering1 the severest hunger, and have no resource but to eat the most tough and filthy remains of ani- mal matter which they can espy on their laborious journeys. The mode in which the Esquimaux dogs are em- ployed in drawing the sledge, is described in a very striking manner by Captain Parry, in his "Journal of a Second Voyage for the discovery of a North- West passage." We should diminish the value of the narrative were we to abridge it. "When drawing a sledge, the dogs have a simple harness (annoo) of deer or seal-skin, going round the neck by one bight, and another for each of the fore legs, with a single thong leading over the back, and attached to the sledge as a trace. Though they ap- pear at first sight to be huddled together without regard to regularity, there is, in fact, considerable attention paid to their arrangement, particularly in the selection of a dog of peculiar spirit and sagacity, who is allowed, by a longer trace, to precede the rest as leader, and to whom, in turning to the right or left, the driver usually addresses himself. This choice is made without regard to age or sex; and the rest E 38 THE MENAGERIES. of the dogs take precedency according to their train- ing or sagacity, the least effective being put nearest the sledge. The leader is usually from eighteen to twenty feet from the fore part of the sledge, and the hindmost dog about half that distance; so that when ten or twelve are running together, several are nearly abreast of each other. The driver sits quite low, on the fore part of the sledge, with his feet overhanging the snow on one side, and having in his hand a whip, of which the handle, made either of wood, bone, or whalebone, is eighteen inches, and the lash more than as many feet, in length: the part of the thong next the handle is platted a little way down to stiffen it, and give it a spring, on which much of its use de- pends; and that which composes the lash is chewed by the women, to make it flexible in frosty weather. The men acquire from their youth considerable ex- pertness in the use of this whip, the lash of which is left to trail along the ground by the side of the sledge, and with which they can inflict a very severe blow on any dog at pleasure. Though the dogs are kept in training entirely by fear of the whip, and, in- deed, without it, would soon have their own way, its immediate effect is always detrimental to the draught of the sledge; for not only does the individual that is struck draw back and slacken his trace, but gene- rally turns upon his next neighbour, and this passing on to the next, occasions a general divergency, ac- companied by the usual yelping and shewing of the teeth. The dogs then come together again by degrees, and the draught of the sledge is accelerated; but even at the best of times, by this rude mode of draught, the traces of one-third of the dogs form an angle of thirty or forty degrees on each side of the direction in which the sledge is advancing. Another great in- convenience attending the Esquimaux method of put- ting the dogs to, besides that of not employing their THE DOG. 39 strength to the best advantage, is the constant en- tanglement of the traces by the dogs repeatedly doubling under from side to side to avoid the whip; so that, after running a few miles, the traces always require to be taken off and cleaned. "In directing the sledge, the whip acts no very essential part, the driver for this purpose using cer- tain words, as the carters do with us, to make the dogs turn more to the right or left. To these a good leader attends with admirable precision, especially if his own name be repeated at the same time, looking behind over his shoulder with great earnestness, as if listening to the directions of the driver. On a beaten track, or even where a single foot or sledge- mark is occasionally discernible, there is not the slightest trouble in guiding the dogs: for even in the darkest night, and in the heaviest snow-drift, there is little or no danger of their losing the road, the leader keeping his nose near the ground, and direct- ing the rest with wonderful sagacity. Where, how- ever, there is no beaten track, the best driver among them makes a terrible circuitous course, as all the Esquimaux roads plainly shew; these generally oc- cupying an extent of six miles, when, with a horse and sledge, the journey would scarcely have amounted to five. On rough ground, as among hummocks of ice, the sledge would be frequently overturned, or altogether stopped, if the driver did not repeatedly get off, and by lifting or drawing it to one side, steer clear of those accidents. At all times, indeed, ex- cept on a smooth and well made road, he is pretty constantly employed thus with his feet, which, to- gether with his never-ceasing vociferations, and fre- quent use of the whip, renders the driving of one of these vehicles by no means a pleasant or easy task. When the driver wishes to stop the sledge, he calls out 'Wo, woa,' exactly as our carters do, but the 40 THE MENAGERIES. attention paid to this command depends altogether on his ability to enforce it. If the weight is small, and the journey homeward, the dogs are not to be thus delayed; the driver is therefore obliged to dig his heels into the snow to obstruct their progress, and having thus succeeded in stopping them, he stands up with one leg before the foremost cross-piece of the sledge, till, by means of laying the whip gently over each dog's head, he has made them all lie down. He then takes care not to quit his position, so that should the dogs set off, he is thrown upon the sledge instead of being left behind by them. "With heavy loads, the dogs draw best with one of their own people, especially a woman, walking a little way a-head; and in this case they are some- times enticed to mend their pace by holding a mitten to the mouth, and then making the motion of cutting it with a knife, and throwing it on the snow, when the dogs mistaking it for meat, hasten forward to pick it up. The women also entice them from the huts in a similar manner. The rate at which they travel depends, of course, on the weight they have to draw, and the road on which their journey is per- formed. When the latter is level, and very hard and smooth, constituting what, in other parts of North America, is called 4 good sleighing,' six or seven dogs will draw from eight to ten hundred weight, at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour, for several hours together; and will easily, under these circum- stances, perform a journey of fifty or sixty miles a day. On untrodden snow, five-ancl-twenty or thirty miles would be a good day's journey. The same number of well fed dogs, with a weight of only five or six hundred pounds, (that of the sledge included,) are almost unmanageable, and will, on a smooth road, run any way they please, at the rate of ten miles an hour. The work performed by a greater number of THE DOG. 41 dogs is, however, by no means in a proportion to this, owing to the imperfect mode already described of employing the strength of these sturdy creatures, and to the more frequent snarling and fighting occa- sioned by an increase of numbers." Esquimaux Dogs and Sledge. The dogs of the Esquimaux oifer to us a striking example of the great services which the race of dogs has rendered to mankind in the progress of civiliza- tion. The inhabitants of the shores of Baffin's Bay, and of those still more inclement regions to which our discovery ships have recently penetrated, are. per- haps never destined to advance much farther than their present condition in the scale of humanity. Their climate forbids them attempting the gratifica- tion of any desires beyond the commonest animal wants. In the short summers, they hunt the rein-deer for a stock of food and clothing; during the long winter, when the stern demands of hunger drive them from their snow huts to search for provisions, they still find a supply in the rein-deer, in the seals which lie in holes under the ice of the lakes, and in the bears which prowl about on the frozen shores of the sea. Without the exquisite scent and the undaunted courage of their dogs, the several objects of their chase could e3 42 THE MENAGERIES. never be obtained in sufficient quantities during the winter, to supply the wants of the inhabitants; nor could the men be conveyed from place to place over the snow, with that celerity which greatly contributes to their success in hunting. In drawing the sledges, if the doirs scent a single rein-deer, even a quarter of a mile distant, they gallop off furiously in the direction of the scent; and the animal is soon within reach of the unerring arrow of the hunter. They will discover a seal-hole entirely by the smell, at a very great dis- tance. Their desire to attack the ferocious bear is so great, that the word nennook, which signifies that animal, is often used to encourage them, when run- ning in a sledge; two or three dogs, led forward by a man, will fasten upon the largest bear without hesi- tation. They are eager to chase every animal but the wolf; and of him they appear to have an instinctive terror which manifests itself on his approach, in a loud and long-continued howl. Certainly there is no animal which combines so many properties useful to his master, as the dog of the Esquimaux. With the exception of that most serviceable pro- perty of drawing and carrying burthens, most of the various races of dogs have, in a similar manner, as- sisted mankind in subduing the earth. In our own country, the wolf, the brown bear, and the boar, were once common; they are now extirpated. This result, without which civilization must have very slowly ad- vanced, could not have been effected without the assistance of the dog*. Cuvier, the great French na- turalist, says, "the dog is the most complete, the most remarkable, and the most useful conquest ever made by man. Every species has become our pro- perty; each individual is altogether devoted to his master, assumes his manners, knows and defends his goods, and remains attached to him until death ; and all this proceeds neither from want nor constraint, THE DOG. 43 but solely from true gratitude and real friendship. The swiftness, the strength, and the scent of the dog have created for man a powerful ally against other animals, and were perhaps necessary to the establish- ment of society. He is the only animal which has followed man through every region of the earth." Buffon says, "the art of training dogs seems to have been the first invented by man; and the result of it was the conquest and peaceable possession of the earth/' But this art would never have become per- fectly successful and completely universal, had there not been in the race of dogs a natural desire to be useful to man; an aptitude for his society; a strong and spontaneous longing for his friendship. Burchell, a distinguished traveller in Africa, has observed, that we never see in various countries an equal familiarity with other quadrupeds, according to the habits, the taste, or the caprice of different nations; and he thence concludes, that the universal friendship of the man and the dog must be the. result of the laws of nature. With singular propriety, therefore, has the name Canis familiar is been assigned by Linneeus to the species. The dogs of the Esquimaux lead always a fatiguing, and often a very painful life. They are not, like the Siberian dogs, (to which they bear a considerable resemblance,) turned out in the summer to seek their own sustenance: at that period they are fat and vigorous; for they have abundance of kaow, or the skin and part of the blubber of the walrus*. But their feeding in winter is very precarious. Their masters have but little to spare; and the dogs become mise- * The attachment of these dogs to the taste and smell of fat is as remarkable as the passion of the Cossacks for oil. At Chelsea, there are two domesticated Esquimaux dogs that will stand, hour alter hour, in front of a candlemaker's workshop, suuffing the savoury effluvia of his melting tallow, 44 THE MENAGERIES, rably thin, at a time when the severest labour is im- posed upon them. It is not, therefore, surprising that the shouts and blows of their drivers have no effect in preventing- them from rushing out of their road to pick up whatever they can descry; or that they are con- stantly creeping into the huts, to pilfer any thing within their reach: their chances of success are but small; for the people within the huts are equally keen in the protection of their stores, and they spend half their time in shouting out the names of the intruders (for the dogs have all names), and in driving them forth by the most unmerciful blows. This is a sin- gular, but, from the difference of circumstances, not unnatural contrast to the treatment of dogs described in Homer, The princes of the Trojan war allowed their dogs to wait under their tables, to gather up the remains of their feasts. In the twenty-third book of the Iliad, it is mentioned that Patroclus had no fewer than nine such humble retainers. The same princes, too, as we learn in the tenth book of the Odyssey, carried home to their dogs the fragments which fell from the tables of their entertainers. Amongst these fragments were the soft and fine parts of bread, called aTrofia^haXiai, with which the guests wiped their fin- gers when the meal was finished, and which were al- ways a perquisite to the dogs. In allusion, probably, to this custom, the woman of Canaan says, " the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table/' The hunger which the Esquimaux dogs feel so se- verely in winter, is somewhat increased by the tempe- rature they live in. In cold climates, and in temperate ones in cold weather, animal food is required in larger quantities than in warm weather, and in temperate regions. The only mode which the dogs have of as- suaging or deceiving the calls of hunger, is by the distension of the stomach with any filth which they can find to swallow. The wolves and rein-deer of the THE DOG, 45 polar countries, when pressed by hunger in the win- ter, devour clay. The Kamschatkans sometimes distend their stomachs with saw-dust. Humboldt reiates that the Otomacs, during- the periodical in- undation of the rivers of South America, when the depth of the water prevents their customary occupa- tion of fishing, appease their hunger, even for several months, by swallowing a fine unctuous clay, slightly baked. Many other instances of this nature are given in Dr. Elliotson's learned and amusing Notes to his edition of Blumenbach's Physiology. The painful sense of hunger is generally regarded as the eifect of the contraction of the stomach, which effect is con- stantly increased by a draught of cold liquid. Captain Parry mentions that in winter the Esquimaux dogs will not drink water, unless it happen to be oily. They know, by experience, that their cravings would be increased by this indulgence, and they lick some clean snow as a substitute, which produces a less contraction of the stomach than water. Dogs, in general, can bear hunger for a very long time, with- out any serious injury, having a supply of some sub- stance for the distension of their stomachs. It is mentioned, in the Memoirs of the French Academy of Sciences, that a bitch, which had been shut up and forgotten in a country house, was sustained for forty days without any nourishment beyond the wool of a quilt, which she had torn in pieces. A dog has been known to live thirty-six days without food, or substitute for food. We have already noticed that the Esquimaux dogs do not bark. This is a peculiarity of many varieties of the dog; but very rarely of those which are na- tives of temperate countries. Probably this is an effect of high as well as of low temperature. Sonnini says, that the people of Upper Egypt have a species of dog resembling the shepherd's dog, with voices so 46 THE MENAGERIES. weak, that their barking' can scarcely be heard. Co- lumbus observed, that the voices of the dogs which he took to the West Indies became feeble. In both cases the tropical climate probably produced this re- sult. The prophet Isaiah alludes to this peculiarity, in his denunciation of idle instructors: "They are dumb dogs, and cannot bark/' The inhabitants of Holland and the Netherlands have long been accustomed to the use of dogs for purposes of draught. Pennant mentions, that in those countries they draw little carts to the herb- markets. In London, within these few years, ther use of dogs in dragging light vehicles has become very general; and though their strength is rarely em- ployed in combination, as is the case with the Esqui- maux sledge-dogs, their energy makes them capable of moving very considerable weights. There are many bakers in the more populous parts of London who have a travelling shop upon wheels, drawn by one or two stout mastiffs or bull-dogs. But the venders of THE DOG. 47 cat's meat appear to have derived the largest benefit from this application of animal power. The passenger through the narrow streets and lanes of London is often amused by the scenes between the consumers of the commodity and those who bring it to the houses. At the well-known cry of the dealer, the cats of a whole district are in activity—anxiously peeping out of the doors for the expected meal, and sometimes fearlessly approaching the little cart, without appre- hension of their supposed enemy who draws it. The dogs attached to these carts appear to have no disposition to molest the impatient groups of cats who gather around them. The habit of considering dogs and cats as natural enemies has tended to the production of a great deal of cruelty. It is true that clogs will, by instinct, pursue anything which flies from them; and puppies will thus run after, and fre- quently kill, chickens. But dogs, by chastisement, may be made to comprehend that nothing domestic must be molested. Beckford, a writer on hunting*, alludes to the circumstance of buck-hounds playing with deer on a lawn, within an hour or two after a chase of the same species. There is at present a tame doe in the streets of London, belonging to some per- son near St. Clement's Church-yard, which the passing dogs never affront; and we have seen, some years ago, at Goodwood, the seat of the Duke of Richmond, a pack of fox-hounds, on their way to cover, go close to a fox chained at the outer gate of their kennel, without taking the slightest notice of him. This, at any rate, shews that dogs have their instincts under subjection to die commands of their friend and master, man. The Newfoundland dogs, one of the most active and sagacious varieties, are employed in their native districts to draw carts and sledges, laden with wood and fish, and to perform a variety of useful offices, in the place of the horse. In many of the northern 48 THE MENAGERIES. countries, the bold and powerful races of dogs are thus rendered peculiarly valuable. A century ago, nearly all the travelling intercourse of Canada was carried on by dogs. The superiority of the New- foundland dogs in swimming is well known: they are semi-webbed between the toes, which mechanism of the foot is of the greatest, advantage to them; pre- senting, as it does, an extended surface to press away the water from behind, and then collapsing, when it is drawn forward, previous to making the stroke. The hereditary habits of these dogs, too, eminently qualify them for swimming, or rowing through the water, asr the action is more correctly described by Sir Everard Home. It is thus that we have the most abundant instances of human life being saved by these gene- rous and courageous animals. All dogs, however, can swim; although some dislike the water, and take to it with difficulty at the bidding of their masters. The bull-dog would appear the least likely to combat with a heavy sea, as the Newfoundland dogs often do; and yet the following circumstance is well au- thenticated :—On board a ship, which struck upon a rock near the shore during a gale, there were three dogs, two of the Newfoundland variety, and an English bull-dog, rather small in growth, but very firmly built and strong. It was important to have a rope carried ashore; and as no boat could live for an instant in the breakers towards the land, it was thought that one of the Newfoundland dogs might succeed; but he was not able to struggle with the waves, and perished. The. other Newfoundland dog", upon being thrown overboard with the rope, shared a similar fate. But the bull-dog, though not habi- tuated to the water, swam triumphantly to land, and thus saved the lives of the persons on board. Among them was his master, a military officer, who still has the dog in his possession. THE DOG. 49 Bag of the Mackenzie River. In the northern parts of the continent of America, there are dogs of a very different variety from those of the Esquimaux. They are slender and graceful, with sharp nose and pricked ears, and very much re- semble, except in colour, the arctic fox of the same regions. Indeed these dogs are considered a variety of this fox—(canis lagopus). Three of this species, from the Mackenzie River, are in the gardens of the Zoological Society. They were presented by Captain Franklin and his scientific companion, Dr. Richard- son. Their hair is exceedingly fine and silky, increas- ing in thickness in the winter, and then also becoming more generally white. The specimen in the above wood-cut was drawn in the autumn, when the black parts of the coat were distinctly marked; those parts are now (the beginning of February) of a much lighter colour—somewhat of a slaty grey. This variety is 50 THE MENAGEItlES. cultivated by the Hare Indians; and, from its light make, and the breadth of its feet, is peculiarly fitted for chasing- the moose deer over the snow, without sinking, as a heavier dog would do. The dog of the Laplander, which watches the herds of the rein-deer to guard them from the attacks of wolves, which collects them when they are dispersed, and assists his master in driving them to the fold to be milked, is a different variety from that of the Mac- kenzie River, but is somewhat similar in its slight- ness and colour. The changes in the quantity and colour of their clothing, which almost all polar animals undergo with the change of seasons, is one of the most re- markable and beautiful provisions of nature. The fur, or wool, or feathers, with which quadrupeds and birds are covered, is regulated generally as to its quality and quantity by the temperature of the region which the animal inhabits. The dogs of Guinea, the Indian sheep, and the African ostrich, are so thinly clothed, that they may be considered almost naked. The temperature of their bodies is thus necessarily diminished in proportion to the heat of the climate in which they live. The Iceland sheep and the Esqui- maux dog, on the contrary, are covered with a warm coat, both of hair and wool, which enables them to bear the most intense cold without much inconveni- ence. Previous to winter, the hair of all animals is increased in quantity and length,, and the more they are exposed the greater is the increase. Horses and cows, housed during the winter, have short and thin hair, in comparison with those exposed to the weather, whose coats become shaggy. The groom is aware of this arrangement of nature, and he re- doubles his labour in winter to give his horse a fine coat, and thus to render him unfit for exposure to the cold. The agents of the Hudson's Bay Com- THE DOG. 51 pany, who annually transmit to Europe many thou- sands of the most valuable furs, will only purchase of the Indians, with whom they traffic, those which are obtained during the winter. The furs of those ani- mals of North America which are killed in the sum- mer are quite unfit for purposes of commerce, and they are of an inferior quality early in the winters of unusual mildness. The growth of the hair is de- pendent upon the temperature of the atmosphere; and thus the skins of hares and rabbits with us are seldom ripe in the fur, as it is called, till frosty weather has set in. The moulting of birds, which 'takes place previous to winter, after their young are reared, is a similar provision of nature. By the re- newal of the feathers, a sufficient covering is afforded to enable them to bear the approaching change of season. The changes of colour in many of the polar ani- mals, and in others with which we are more familiar, though an undisputed fart, is not generally under- stood as proceeding from the same principle of adap- tation to the change of season, as the increase in the quantity of their clothing. The Alpine hare, which is found in Scotland, is in summer of a tawny grey; in winter it becomes of a snowy white. The ermine, which is also found in the British islands, has its summer coat of a reddish brown; in winter it affords the beautiful white fur which is so generally known, and with which the robes of our judges are adorned. At the Duke of Devonshire's villa at Chiswick, there is a fine specimen of the Arctic fox. When we saw it in September, the colour was of a dingy blue; in January it was perfectly white. The plumage of the ptarmigan, a bird of the grouse species which breeds in Scotland, is of an ash colour, with dusky spots, in summer, and of a pure white in winter. The rapi- dity with which the colours change, and the extent of f 2 52 THE MENAGERIES. the alteration, in these examples and in other ani- mals, always depend upon the severity of the season. But the advantage cf the change, whether it be com- plete or incomplete, is sufficiently evident, when we take into consideration a well known philosophical principle. Every one is aware that in summer a black hat produces a much stronger sense of heat to the wearer than a white one. The same thing occurs to animals of a black and white colour. If they are placed in a higher temperature than that of their own bodies, the heat will enter the one that is black with the greatest rapidity, and elevate its tempera- ture very much above, that of the other. When these animals, on the contrary, are placed in a situation where the temperature is considerably lower than that of their own bodies, the black animal will give out its heat by radiation to every surrounding object colder than itself, much more qnickly than the white animal. The surface which reflects heat most readily, as in objects of a white colour, suffers it to escape but slowly by radiation; and it is for this reason that the white animal has its temperature reduced most slowly in the winter *. The change of colour in the clothing of some quadrupeds and birds exposed to severe cold, as well as the increase in the quantity of their outward protection against its effects, forms one of those beautiful provisions of the Author of Nature which we recognize in every examination of his works, but which we sometimes overlook in our hasty notice of ordinary appearances, without regard to the causes from which they spring. The dogs of the Mackenzie River in the gardens of the Zoological Society are extremely gentle. They retain, however, something of a wild nature. One of * See Fleming's Philosophy of Zoology, vol. ii. The protec- tion of the animal from pursuit is by some considered another end answered by the colour resembling that of the surrounding- snow. THE DOG. 53 them was allowed, some time since, to run by the side of a gentleman connected with the society. For a little while he was tractable; but he suddenly darted away, and was only retaken after a sharp chase, not very different from a fox-hunt. One of them, which was whelped in this country, barks—a property which would appear either to indicate that barking" is a pe- culiarity of the domestication of the dog*, or an effect oi temperature. Many of the dogs of the northern regions can only be considered as half-domesticated. The Esquimaux dogs, and those of the Laplanders, are indeed faith- iril to their masters, return caresses for blows, and are io a certain extent obedient ; but even these rebel cpiinst authority, and fear no chastisement, when the) desire to satisfy their voracious appetites. The probability is that they would be entirely obedient if (hey were regularly fed. As man in a highly civilized state acquires the greatest command over his instinc- ti\e powers, so the inferior animals, and dogs in par- ticular, partake of this effect of civilization. An English household dog will enter a larder, even when hungry, and not touch the provisions which he finds unguarded; the Esquimaux dog, on the contrary, is always contending with the family of his master for a share of their scanty fare. An experi- enced pointer passes by the place from which he has seen a covey spring, without indulging the feelings which must be aroused by the scent which the birds ha\e left behind; the Esquimaux dog often drags away his sledge in the direction of a rein-deer or a seal, quite uncontrollable by his surly master. Per- haps the education of each variety may have much to do with this. Those who have studied the training of sporting clogs have observed that gentle chastise- ments, often repeated, and mixed with kindness, produce the most perfect obedience, while hasty se- f3 54 THE MENAGERIES. verity frightens the animal for the moment, but leaves no permanent impression. The feeding of a kennel of fox-hounds is one of the most striking illustrations of the power of training to produce complete obedience. The energy and even fierce- ness of these dogs cannot be overlooked; there is nothing slavish and crouching in their demeanour. They are hungry, and they know they are about to be fed; but they manifest no rebellious impatience. The feeder stations himself at the door which sepa- rates the outer kennel from the feeding room. At his presence a cry of joy is set up by the whole pack, but it is instantly silenced at his command. He calls "Juno"—Juno passes out; "Ponto"— Ponto follows; and so on through the pack, even if there be thirty couple. If a young dog should at- tempt to go out of his order, he is turned back, he recollects the punishment, and he seldom again trans- gresses. The pack has arrived at this state of perfect discipline by gentle correction, and, what is more im- portant, by a system of mutual instruction, if we may venture so to express this particular force of example. In the kennels of packs of fox-hounds the follow- ing barbarous custom of the dogs towards one another has been sometimes observed. If a hound gets down of his own accord from the bench on which he is lying, no notice of it is taken by the others. But if a hap- less hound falls off the bench from awkwardness, his companions fly at him and bite him to death. The dogs of Kamtschatka, as described in Von Langsdorff's Travels, when, in summer, they are not wanted to draw the sledges of the inhabitants, are left to rove at large and find their own food. They keep on the sea-shore, or in the neighbourhood of rivers, lurking after fish, and standing in the water up to their bellies: when they see a fish, they snap at it with unerring aim. In the autumn, they return of THE DOG, 55 their own accord to their particular owners in the villages. Hunger may have something to do with this voluntary resignation of their liberty after their absolute freedom; and the author from whom we gather these particulars attributes the circumstance wholly to hunger; but it appears to us that habit contributes an equally powerful motive, and that the two motives both operate. A herd of cows that come of their own will to the farm-yard at milking time, from a distant pasture, desire to be relieved of the burthen of their swollen udders; and they know from habit, and the example of other cows who have IIihs acted, in what manner, and at what period, that relief will be afforded them. Many of the inferior animals have a distinct knowledge of time. The sun appears to regulate the motions of those which leave their homes in the morning, to return at particular hours of the evening. The Kamtschatka dogs are probably influenced in their autumnal return to their homes by a change of temperature. But in those animals possessing the readiest conceptions, as in the case of dogs in a highly civilized country, the exercise of this faculty is strikingly remarkable. Mr. Southey, in his Omniana, relates two instances of dogs that had acquired such a knowledge of time as would en- able them to count the days of the week. He says, i\el\ robbed by a thief, who took this method to overcome the courage of a powerful Newfoundland dog, who had long protected a considerable property. I he terror which the dog felt at the naked thief was aUogether imaginary—for the naked man was less capable of resisting the attack of the dog, than if he had been clothed. But then the dog had no support in his experience. His memory of the past did not come to the aid of that faculty which saw an unknown danger in the future. The faculties of quadrupeds, like those of men, are of course mixed in their operation. The dog, who watches by his master's grave, and is not tempted awaj by the caresses of the living, employs both his memory and his imagination in this act of affec- tion. In the year 1827 there was a dog constantly lo he seen in St. Bride's Churchyard, Fleet-street, which for two }ears had refused to leave the place where his master was buried. He did not appear miserable ;—he evidently recollected their old com- panionship, and he imagined that their friendship would again be renewed. The inhabitants of the houses round the church daily fed the poor creature, and the sexton built him a little kennel. But he would never quit the spot;—and there he died. h 3 78 THE MENAGERIES. The instances of devoted affection of clogs to their masters are too numerous, and too well known, to require that they should be here repeated. It is a fortunate circumstance connected with this natural attachment of dogs to mankind, that in general they are only considered valuable during their lives; and their value consists in the qualities which have a ten- dency to make men gentle and affectionate towards them in return. But this reciprocal friendship is not universal. The natives on the coast of Guinea, and those of the South Sea Islands, eat dog's flesh ;— there are said to be dog-butchers in China;—and in Finmark, and other parts of Lapland, dogs are bred, fattened, and slaughtered for their hides *. The faculty by which animals can communicate their ideas to each other is very striking; in dogs it is particularly remarkable. There are many curious anecdotes recorded, illustrative of this faculty; but we prefer giving one from our own knowledge. At Horton, in Buckinghamshire, (a village where Milton passed some of his early days,) about the year 1818, a gentleman from London took possession of a house, the former tenant of which had moved to a farm about half a mile off. The new inmate brought with him a large French poodle, to take the duty of watch- man, in the place of a fine Newfoundland dog, which went away with his master: but a puppy of the same breed was left behind; and he was incessantly perse- cuted by the poodle. As the puppy grew up, the per- secution still continued. At length, he was one day missing for some hours; but he did not come back alone: he returned with his old friend, the large house-dog, to whom he had made a communication; and in an instant the two fell upon the unhappy poodle, and killed him before he could be rescued from their fury. In this case, the injuries of the young dog must have been made known to his friend; 3 * De Broke's Travels in Lapland, THE DOG, 79 plan of revenge concerted; and the determination to carry that plan into effect formed and executed with equal promptitude. The following story, which illustrates, even in a more singular manner, the communication of ideas between dogs, was told us by a clergyman, as an authentic anecdote:—A surgeon of Leeds, walking in the suburbs of that town, found a little spaniel who had been lamed. He carried the poor animal home, bandaged up his leg, and, after two or three days, turned him out. The dog returned to the surgeon's house every morning, till his leg was per- fectly well. At the end of several months the spaniel again presented himself, in company with another dog, who had also been lamed; and he intimated, as well as piteous and intelligent looks could intimate, that he desired the same kind assistance to be ren- dered to his friend as had been bestowed upon him - self A similar circumstance is stated to have oc- curred to Moraut, a celebrated French surgeon. But we are forgetting the African blood-hounds of the Tower Menagerie; and, in truth, we had no pleasurable recollections of these poor animals. The contrast of their former with their present situation is very painful. From hunting the herds of ante- lopes over the wide plains of Africa, they have been taken to a close den, where they are evidently rest- less and miserable. The mastiff, chained up in a kennel, feels that he is useful, and he is, therefore, happy. Dogs have an instinctive desire of employ- ment; and they are never so delighted as when man is cheering them on to some exertion: their reward is the approbation of their masters. But there are these fine creatures shut up in a cage, only to be looked at; and they feel their captivity and degrada- tion. As is common under similar circumstances, they have no desire to perpetuate their race; and the female has become very surly and spiteful. They are 80 THE MENAGERIES. exceedingly beautiful dogs; and it is supposed that the breed, if crossed with our pointers, would greatly improve the variety. African Blood-hounds. What is generally called the docility of dogs—the faculty of being taught tricks contrary to their na- tures, is curious, but far from pleasing: the perfection is generally attained by cruelty. It is more agreeable to witness a natural docility ;—such as that of our own shepherd's dog, who learns to distinguish every sheep of a large flock; and who will drive them through the crowded streets, with a foresight perfectly won- derful. But our shepherd's dog acts under a rough, and often brutal, drover; though, perhaps, this bru- tality naturally arises out of the impediments pre- sented to a kind discharge of his duty, by passengers equally intent upon making their way. The drover and the shepherd are very different persons ; and, in gentleness, the drover's dog and the real shepherd's dog are equally unlike. Some of the finest dogs in the world are those which watch the Merino sheep THE DOG. 81 upon the Spanish mountains. They wear large col- lars with spikes, to protect them from the attacks of the wolves ; and they conduct their flocks with a gen- tleness which is only equalled by their courage. When they return to the folds, the dogs bring up the strag- glers without violence; and the man walks at their head, in the true pastoral style, so beautifully de- scribed in the Psalms: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters." The dog, as well as most other animals, indicates his-different feelings by different tones of his voice; and thus the shepherd's dog has a command over his hock without using positive violence. Their tones are so marked that they are recognised, as expressive of anger or fear, by other animals. The horse knows from the bark of a dog when he may expect an attack upon his heels. The author of Waverley alludes to this dread which horses have of angry dogs, when he quotes the ridiculous story of a French tourist in Scotland, that the State maintained in each village a relay of curs, called colleys, whose duty it was to chace the post-horses (too starved and exhausted to move without such a stimulus) from one hamlet to another, till the annoyance thus produced drove the wretched animals to the end of their stage. The practice bf teaching dogs tricks is as old as the Romans. Montaigne has quoted from Plutarch the following account of a wonderful dog of anti- quity :—" Plutarch says, he saw a dog at Rome, at the theatre of Marcellus, which performed most ex- traordinary feats, taking his part in a farce which was played before the Emperor Vespasian. Amongst other things, he counterfeited himself dead, after having feigned to eat a certain drug, by swallowing a piece of bread. At first, he began to tremble and stagger, as if he were astonished; and, at length, 82 THE MENAGERIES. stretching himself out stiff, as if he had been dead, he suffered himself to be drawn and dragged from place to place, as it was his part to do; but after- wards, when he knew it to be time, he began first gently to stir, as if newly awaked out of some pro- found sleep, and lifting up his head, looked about him, after such a manner as astonished all the spectators." There was even a more curious exhibition of this de- scription at Paris, in 1817. The English were accus- tomed to employ this docility to some advantage in their domestic arrangements; but the race of Turn- spits, a long-backed, short-legged dog, has ceased to exist, except as an occasional curiosity. Machinery has here superseded animal power, as in many other cases. Asses are seldom, now, put to walk in a wheel to raise water, as we have seen at Carisbrook Castle, in the Isle of Wight. The dancing dogs of the showman, too, are almost extinct; though, now and then, his pipe and tabor are heard in some obscure street of London; and boys gather around to wonder at the sight of dogs turning a spinning-wheel, and dancing a cotillon; and they think of the story of "Mother Hubbard" as a profound truth in natural history. THE DOG. 83 We have alluded in Chapter II. to those exhibi- tions of remarkable attachment between animals of opposite natures, which are sometimes so interesting in menageries. These attachments are more frequent with dogs than with other animals—probably because they are more capable of attachment. The friend- ship between dogs and horses is too common to at- tract notice; but every now and then we hear of an attachment where we might have expected an anti- pathy. Dr. Fleming, in his interesting book, 'The Philosophy of Zoology,' quotes from Montague's supplement to his Ornithological Dictionary, the fol- lowing account of a singular friendship which sub- sisted between a China goose, and a pointer, who had killed the gander. "Ponto (for that was the dogs name) was most severely punished for the misdemeanour, and had the dead bird tied to his neck. The solitary goose became extremely dis- tressed for the loss of her partner and only com- panion; and, probably, having been attracted to the clog's kennel by the sight of her dead mate, she seemed determined to persecute Ponto by her con- stant attendance and continual vociferations; but alter a little time a strict amity and friendship sub- sisted between these incongruous animals. They fed out of the same trough, lived under the same roof, and in the same straw-bed kept each other warm; and when the dog was taken to the field, the inhar- monious lamentations of the goose for the absence of her friend were incessant." We have one anecdote of a similar nature, to add, Irom our own observation. We recorded the circum- stance as follows, at the time when it was made known to us in 1823. We were lately visiting in a house where a very pleasing and singular portrait attracted our observation; it was that of a young- lady represented with a partridge perched upon her 84 THE MENAGERIES. shoulder, and a dog with his feet on her arm. We recognised it as a representation of the lady of the house, but were at a loss to account for the odd association of her companions. She observed our surprise, and at once gave the history of the bird and the spaniel. They were, both, some years back, domesticated in her family. The dog was an old parlour favourite, who went by the name of Tore. The partridge was more recently introduced from France, and answered to the equally familiar name of Bill. It was rather a dangerous experiment to place them together, for Tom was a lively and spi- rited creature, very apt to torment the cats, and to bark at any object which roused his instinct. But the experiment was tried; and Bill, being very tame, did not feel much alarm at his natural enemy. They were, of course, shy at first, but this shyness gradually wore off: the bird became less timid, and the dog less bold. The most perfect friendship was at length es- tablished between them. When the hour of dinner arrived, the partridge invariably flew on his mistress's shoulder, calling with that shrill note which is so well known to sportsmen; and the spaniel leapt about with equal ardour. One dish of bread and milk was placed on the floor, out of which the spaniel and bird fed together; and after their social meal, the dog would retire to a corner to sleep, while the partridge would nestle between his legs, and never stir till his favourite awoke. Whenever the dog- accompanied his mistress out, the bird displayed the utmost disquietude till his return; and once, when the partridge was shut up by accident during a whole day, the dog searched about the house with a mournful cry which indicated the strength of his affection. The friendship of Tom and Bill was at length fatally terminated. The beautiful little dog was stolen; and the bird from that time refused all THE DOG. 85 food, and died on the seventh day, a victim to his grief. The stories of attachment between' lions and dogs are well authenticated; and in several instances the stronger animal has afforded a protection to his trem- bling victim, which has ripened into friendship. In a well-regulated travelling menagerie, belonging to a pernon named Atkins, we saw, in the autumn of 1828, a spaniel-bitch affording sustenance to a young tiger who was sick, and. not expected to live, and whom she evidently tended with affectionate solici- tude.' The following cut is a representation of this singular pair. We. cannot quit the subject of clogs without advert- ing to that lamentable circumstance, their occasional madness. This disease is not common to dogs in all climates. According to Mr. Barrow, canine madness is unknown in South Africa; although this assertion 86 THE MENAGERIES. has been disproved within these few years *. Other temporary diseases are oftentimes mistaken for this fearful malady; and we therefore subjoin the symp- toms of hydrophobia, as described by MM. Chaus- sier and Orfila, who have written a scientific work on this disorder:— "A dog at the commencement of madness is sick, languishing, and more dull than usual. He seeks obscurity, remains in a corner, does not bark, but growls continually at strangers, and, without any apparent cause, refuses to eat or drink. His ga,t is unsteady, nearly resembling that of a man almost asleep. At the end of three or four days he aban- dons his dwelling, roving continually in every direc- tion: he walks or runs as if tipsy, and frequently falls. His hair is bristled up; his eyes haggard, fixed, and sparkling; his head hangs down; his mouth is open and full of frothy slaver; his tongue hangs out; and his tail between his le^s. He has, for the most part, but not always, a horror of water, the sight of which seems generally to redouble his sufferings. He experiences from time to time trans- ports of fury, and endeavours to bite every object which presents itself, not even excepting his master, whom indeed he begins not to recognise. Light and lively colours greatly increase his rage. At the end of thirty or thirty-six hours he dies in convul- sions/' It has also been stated as additional symp- toms of canine madness, that the animal, if bitten, is at first incessantly employed in scratching or gnaw- ing the wound; that the eye becomes blood-shotten, accompanied with a slight squinting; that sometimes a depraved appetite exists, shavings, straw, thread, hair, &c. having been found in the stomach on dis- section; and also that in the dog there is no drcadti water, as he frequently endeavours to drink, but is un- * A case of hydrophobia is recorded by Dr. Wentworth, in the Cape Town Gazette. THE DOG. 87 able to swallow in consequence of a paralysis of the muscles of the throat. The disorder, however, is yet but very imperfectly understood, and there are many conflicting; opinions on the subject. To observe and record facts is the surest mode of increasing* our knowledge of the subject, and may perhaps eventually lead to the dis- covery of an antidote or a preventive of this terrible .malady. At present, after various remedies have been tried in vain, it seems agreed that cutting or burning out the bitten part is the only one to be relied on. The very extensive varieties of the dog, which have been produced by domestication and other causes, have led naturalists into great differences of opinion as to the original stock from which these varieties have sprung. Wild dogs, as they are at present found, are, in most cases, dogs without masters; living in a miserable condition, away from human society, and easily won back to its subjection and its comforts: these, therefore, do not advance our in- quiries as to the original type of the species in a state of nature. Some think the dog is a jackall, some a wolf. In the character of erect ears, many of our domestic dogs nearly resemble the half-re- claimed varieties, such as the Esquimaux; and again, others, in the shape of the head, approach more nearly to the Australasian dog, which has been lately considered as retaining most of the probable dis- tinctive characters of the wild and original stock. M. Frederic Cuvier has directed much attention to this subject; and he has constructed a list of dogs, arranged, as he conceives, in the order of their ap- proach to the parent stock, as far as that can be determined by the shape of the head, and the length of the jaws and muzzle. We subjoin this arrange- ment, which varies greatly from that of Butfon, and i 2 88 THE MENAGERIES. certainly appears much more natural and reason- able. All the varieties of the dog, according to M. F. Cuvier, may be divided into three groups, viz.: I. Matins. II. Spaniels. III. Dogues. I. Matins.—The anatomical character of this group is,—the head more or less elongated; the parietal bones insensibly approaching each other; and the condyles of the lower jaw placed in a horizontal line with the upper cheek teeth. Var. A.—Dog of New Holland.—Cards fam. Austral- asice, Desmarest; Dingo, Shaw. Var. B.—French Matin.—Canisfam.laniarius,Lw- n.eus; Matin, Buffon. (According to Buffon, this dog, a native of temperate climates, becomes the Danish dog, when carried to the north, and the greyhound, when under the influence of a southern climate.) Var. C.—Danish Dog.—Cams fam. danicus, Desma- rest; Grand Danois, Buffon. Var.D.—Greyhound.—Can.graius, Linnaeus ; Levrier, Buffon. This variety includes the following sub-varieties:— a. Irish Greyhound. b. Scotch Greyhound. c. Russian Greyhound. d. Italian Greyhound. e. Turkish Greyhound. (The Italian and the Turkish greyhounds are alike in the great timidity of their dispositions, and their con- stant trembling, proceeding, probably, from excessive sensibility. The common greyhound is feelingly alive to caresses; and the motions of his heart, when noticed, are most violent and irregular.) The Albanian dog, a very celebrated species described by many historians, belongs to this group. THE DOG. 89 II. Spaniels.—The head very moderately elongated; the parietal bones do not approach each other above the temples, but diverge and swell out so as to enlarge the forehead and the cerebral cavity. This group includes the most useful and intelligent of dogs. Var. E.—Spaniel.—Canisfam. extrarius, Linnaeus. (The name of this race is derived from its original country, Spain;—thence Epagneul, French; Spaniel, English.) Sub-varieties:— a. The smaller Spaniel. b. Kina: Charles's Spaniel—Canis brevipilis, Linn. c. Le Pyrame, Buffon.—(There is no English name for this kind.) d. The Maltese Dog.—Bichon, Buffon. e. The Lion Doir.— Canis leoninus, Linn. /. The Calabrian Dog. Var. F.—The Water Spaniel.—Canis aquaticus, Lin- n.eus; Chien barbet, Buffon. Sub-varieties:— a. Small Water Spaniel.—Petit barbel, Buffon. (According to Buffon and Daubenton, this is consi- dered the offspring of the great water dog and the little spaniel.) b. Chien Griffon.—(This is a sub-variety between the water-spaniel and shepherd's dog.) Var.G— The Hound.— Chief? courant,Buffon; Canis sagax, Linn/Eus. (This is essentially the same as the blood-hound. The fox-hound is a smaller variety, and the harrier a still smaller.' The beagle is a particular breed of the harrier. The "Talbot" is an old English name for all the varieties of the hound.) J^ar. H.—The Pointer.—Canis avicularius, Linn.eus. Sub-varieties:— a. Dalmatian Pointer.—Braque de Bengal-, Buffon. i3 90 THE MENAGERIES. Var. I.—Turnspit.—Canisfam. vertagus, Linnaeus. (There are two sub-varieties, one with the fore legs straight, the other crooked.) Var. K.—Shepherd's Dog.—Canis fam. domesticus, Linnaeus. Var. L.—Wolf Dog.—Canis pomer anus y Linnaeus. Var. M.—Siberian Dog.—Cams sibiricus, Linn/eus. Var. N.—Esquimaux ~Dog.— Ca?iis fam. borealis, Des- MAREST. Var. O.—The Aleo. In group II. ought to be included— The Alpine Spaniel. The Newfoundland Dog. The Setter. The Terrier. These are omitted by M. F. Cuvier; but the two first are alluded to in a note by M. Desmarest in his " Mam- malogie." The French call the various mongrel breeds chiens de rue—dogs of the street. III. Dogues.—The muzzle more or less shortened; the skull high; the frontal sinuses considerable; the con- dyle of the lower jaw extending above the line of the upper cheek teeth. The cranium is smaller in this group than in the two previous, owing to the formation of the head. Var. P.—Bull Dog.—Canis fam. molossus, Linn/eus. Sub-variety.—Dog of Thibet. Var. Q.—The Mastiff.—Canis fam. anglicus, Lin- N^US. Var. R.—The Pug Dog.—Le doguin> Buffon. Var. S.—The Iceland Dog.—Canis fam. islandiw, LlNNiEUS. Var. T.—Little Danish Dog.—Cams fam,. variegalus, Linnaeus. (When spotted with black on a white ground, it is called the Harlequin Dog. Notwithstanding the name, THE DOG. 91 there is no resemblance of form between this and the Danish Dog, var. C.) Var, U.—Bastard Pug.—Chien roquet, Buffon. Var. V.—Cams fam. britannicus, Desmarest. — A variety between the little Danish Dog and the Pyrame. Var. X.—Artois Dog, an extinct variety of the Canis fam.fricator of Linn^us. Var. Y.—Dog of Andalusia, sometimes called the Dog of Cayenne, Var. Z.—Barbary Dog.— Chien turc, Buffon; Canis fam. cegijptius, Linnaeus. (There are two varieties; one quite naked, the other with a mane.) Dr. Caius, a naturalist of the seventeenth century, wrote a Latin Treatise on British Dogs, of which he men- tions the following varieties:—Terrare (from terrarius), Harier, Bludhunde, Gasehunde, Grehunde, Leviner or Lyemmer, Tumbler, Spainel, Setter, Water Spainel or Fynder, Spainel-gentle or Comforter, Shepherd's Dog, Mastive or Bande-dog, Wappe, Turnspit, Dancer, The Domestic Dog is scientifically distinguished from the other varieties of the species Canis, by having its tail curved upwards. Whenever there is white on any part of the tail of the Domestic Dog, the tip is invariably white. The dog, whelped with his eyes closed, opens them on the tenth or twelfth day. His teeth begin to change in the fourth month. His growth terminates at two years; and he is old at five. His life rarely exceeds twenty years. The female goes with young sixty-three days. Chapter IV. THE WOLF, THE JACKAL, AND THE FOX. The /I'ofJ\ Pennant; Cum\ lupus, Linnets. In the garden of the Zoological Society there are three young- wolves, a pair of which came from Normandy. The height of the specimen from which the above representation was taken was twenty-six inches in September, 18*28. These ani- mals are here confined in a manner which enables the observer to judge better of their habits than in the ordinary dens of the menageries. They have a roomy kennel to feed and sleep in; and a sort of outer cage made of strong bars of iron rising from the ground, and forming an arch, sufficiently large to enable them to chase each other about with con- siderable freedom: their play is, however, extremely rough; and they often bite with great violence. Upon the whole, they appear good-tempered. We observed THE WOLF. 93 a gentleman, somewhat imprudently, thrust his hand into the. cage, upon which they all licked it, fawning like dogs. The essential character of the common wolf con- sists in,—a straight tail; the hide of a greyish yellow, with a black oblique stripe on the fore-legs of those which are full grown; the eyes oblique. The average height of the wolf is about two feet six inches before, and two feet four inches behind; and the length of the body, from the tip of the muzzle to the beginning of the tail, three feet eight inches. The cubs of the wolf are born with their eyes shut: the female goes with young sixty-three days, and has eight or nine at u litter; in these respects exactly resembling- the clog*. The average duration of their life is from fifteen to twenty years. The gentleness of wolves in confinement seldom continues after they are full grown; they generally appear to acquire a fear instead of a love of man, which manifests itself in a morose and vindictive impatience. The cowardly ferocity of their natures is with difficulty restrained by discipline; they are not to be trusted. And yet there are instances of wolves having been domesticated to such an extent, as to exhibit the greatest attachment to man—as great as can be shewn by a dog. M. F. Cuvier gives a very interesting account of a tame wolf, which had all the obedience towards, and affection for, his master, that the most sagacious and gentle of domestic dogs could possibly evince. He was brought up in the same manner as a puppy, and continued with his original owner till he was full grown. He was then presented to the menagerie at Paris. For many weeks he was * The period of gestation in the wolf is inaccurately staled in Goldsmith's 'Animated Nature;' and from the supposed differ- ence in this particular between the dog and the wolf, an inference is drawn that they are essentially a different species. 94 THE MENAGERIES. quite disconsolate at the separation from his master, who had been obliged to travel; he would scarcely take any food; and was inditferent to his keepers. At length he became attached to those about him, and he seemed to have forgotten his old affections. His master returned after an absence of eighteen months: the wolf heard his voice amidst the crowd in the gardens of the menagerie, and, being set at liberty, displayed the most violent joy. Again was he separated from his friend; and again was his grief as extreme as on the first occasion. After three years' absence, his master once more returned. It was evening, and the wolf's den was shut up from any external observation; yet the instant the man's voice was heard, the faithful animal set up the most anxious cries; and the door of his cage being opened, he rushed towards his friend—leaped upon his shoulders —licked his face—and threatened to bite his keepers, when they attempted to separate them. When the man left him, he fell sick, and refused all food; and from the time of his recovery, which was long very doubtful, it was always dangerous for a stranger to approach him. He appeared as if he scorned any new friendships. This is a very remarkable, and, as far as we know, a solitary instance of the wolf possessing the gene- rous, constant, unshaken attachment of the dog to any individual of the human species. And yet the paucity of these instances may be attributed to oar imperfect knowledge of the history of the domestica- tion of the dog-tribe. In the individual animal de- scribed by M. F. Cuvier, the progress was very clear, from a state of savage fierceness to a state of docility and extraordinary sensibility. This wolf was taken young; brought up with human beings; cherished by one in particular; never suffered to have his ferocity excited by a want of food; and supplied with every THE WOLF. 95 necessary, as well as caresssed, by the person with whom he had especially become familiar. It is very rarely that such an experiment can be tried; for the inhabitants of Europe, for the last thousand years at ledst, have been labouring, with unceasing' anxiety,to extirpate the whole race of wolves. The Esqui- maux dogs, which we have described in Chapter II J., are probably wolves in a state of domestication; but neither the date of their domestication, nor the man- ner in which it has been effected, could be satisfactorily determined, even if the tact of the identity of the species were completely established. That there is an essential diffeience in the characters, though little or none in the physical structures, of wolves, properly so called, and of dogs in the wildest state, (that is, in the stale in which they most nearly lesemble wolves,) is beyond a doubt. rlhey are natural foes: the Esqui- maux dogs set up a ieariul howl at the approach of a wolf to their huts; and yet, in their outwaid appear- ance, these animals are exceedingly alike. Captain Parry, in the Journal ol his Second Voyage, says, "a flock of thirteen wolves, the first yet seen, crossed the ice in the bay, from the direction of the huts, and passed near the ships. These animals, as we after- wards learned, had accompanied, or closely followed, the Esquimaux on their journey to the island the pre- ceding day; and they proved to us the most trouble- some part of their suite. They so much resemble the Esquimaux clogs, that, had it not. been for some doubt amongst, the officers who had seen them whe- ther they were so or not, and the consequent fear of doing these poor people an irreparable injury, we might have killed most of them the same evening, for they came boldly to look for food within a few yards of the Fury, and remained there for some time." Again he says, in his journal five days after, "these animals were so hungry and fearless, as to take away 96 THE MENAGERIES. some of the Esquimaux dogs in a snow-house near the Hecla's stern, though the men were at the time within a few yards of them/' Thus we see that there is an essential difference of character between the Esquimaux dog and wolf, which has rendered the one the natural enemy of the other; although their physical resemblance be so close, as to present no essential variation to an ordinary observer. This dif- ference of character is probably to be found, in a great degree, in the effect of hereditary habit. We have other instances of the disposition which wolves have to make the dog their prey. Captain Parry, in a subsequent passage of the same journal, mentions that a Newfoundland dog, belonging to one of the discovery ships, being enticed to play with some wolves, who were prowling upon the ice, would have been carried off by them, had not the sailors gone in a body to his rescue. In Broke's Travels we find the following curious circumstances recorded as happen- ing in the north of Sweden —" I observed, on setting out from SormjOle, the last post, that the peasant who drove my sledge was armed with a cutlass; and, on inquiring the reason, was told that, the day pre- ceding, while he was passing in his sledge the part of the forest we were then in, he had encountered a wolf, which was so daring, that it actually sprung' over the hinder part of the sledge he was driving, and attempted to carrry off a small dog which was sitting behind him. During my journey from Tornea to Stockholm, I heard everywhere of the ravages com- mitted by wolves, not upon the human species or the cattle, but chiefly upon the peasants' dogs, con- siderable numbers of which had been devoured. I was told, that these were the favourite prey of this animal; and that, in order to seize, upon them with the greater ease, it puts itself into a crouching pos- ture, and begins to play several antic tricks, to THE WOLF. 97 attract the attention of the poor dog, which, caught by these seeming demonstrations of friendship, and fancying it to be one of his own species, from the similarity, advances towards it to join in the gam- bols, and is carried off by its treacherous enemy. Several peasants that I conversed with mentioned their having been eye-witnesses of this circumstance." Nor is the animosity of the dog to the wolf less than that of the wolf to the dog. Associated in packs, and encouraged by men, dogs will chase the wolf with the most daring' ardour, regardless of his greater physical strength; and, probably, without the aid of dogs, they would never have been exterminated in these kingdoms. The wolf is peculiarly an inhabitant of Europe, and he still continues so in the more northern regions, and in those countries where dense forests are not yet cleared. They once abounded in this country; and it is manifest that the terror which they produced was not a rare circumstance, but spread itself throughout all the land, and became a part of the habitual thoughts of the people. The month which corresponds with our January was, at one period, called, by the Anglo-Saxons, "Wolf- monat;" and the reason for this is thus explained by an old writer on British antiquities. "The moneth which we now call January they called 'Wolf- monat,' to wit, Wolf moneth, because people are wont always in that moneth to be more in danger to he devoured of wolves, than in any season els of the yeare; for that, through the extremity of cold and snow, those ravenous creatures could not find of other beasts sufficient to feed upon *" The natural terror which the wolves inspired amongst the scat- * Verstcgan's "Restitution of decayed Intelligence in Anti- quities concerning the most noble and renowned English nation." Antwerp, 1605. 98 THE MENAGERIES. tered inhabitants of the half-cultivated lands of Eng- land was increased by their habitual superstitions. The same author, in his chapter "on the Antiquitie and Proprietie of the ancient English tongue," says, ** Were-wulf: this name remaineth still known in the Teutonic, and is as much to say as man-wolf— the Greek expressing the very like in Lycanthropos. The were-wolves are certain sorcerers, who, having anointed their bodies with an ointment which they make by the instinct of the devil, and putting on a certain enchanted girdel, do not only unto the view of others seem as wolves, but to their own thinking have both the shape and nature of wolves, so long as they weare the said girdel; and they do dispose themselves as very wolves in wurrying and killing, and waste of humane creatures." The Germans had a similar superstition; and, as late as 1589, a man was executed in the Netherlands under the charge of being a were-wulf. This pretended sorcerer, assum- ing- one of the most formidable shapes of mischief, was called, in France, loup-garou. It is said that the wolf, when it has once tasted human flesh, gives it the preference over all other animal food; and from this cause it probably arose that, for many centuries of ignorance, when the influence of evil spirits was universally believed, and the powers of witchcraft were not doubted even by the learned, a raging wolf, devouring every thing in his way,—the sheep in its fold, and the child in its cottage bed,—■ and even digging up newly buried bodies from their graves,—should be supposed to be possessed with some demon more fearful than its own insatiate. appetites. It is to the terror, also, which the wolf inspired, that we are to ascribe the fact of kings and rulers, in a barbarous age, feeling proud of bear- ing the name of this animal, as an attribute of courage and ferocity. Brute power was then CPU" THE WOLF. 99 sidered the highest distinction of man; and the sen- timent was not mitigated by those refinements of modern life which conceal, but do not destroy it. We thus find, amongst our Anglo-Saxon kings, and great men, iEthelwulf, the noble wolf; Berthwulf, the illustrious wolf; Eadwulf, the prosperous wolf; Ealdvvulf. the old wolf. The wolf was extirpated much earlier in England than in any other country of Europe, King Edgar, in the tenth century, according to the ancient chro- nicles, "tooke order for the destroying them through- out the whole realm." The Welsh paid tribute to Edgar, which he commuted for three hundred wolves' heads. Malmsbury says the tribute ceased on the fourth year, for want of wolves. It would appear from the writings of William Fitz-Stephen, the secretary of Thomas-a-Becket, that wolves did not exist in the great forest to the north of London, for he makes no mention of them in his account of it. "On the north are corn fields, pastures and delightful meadows, intermixed with pleasant streams, on which stands many a mill, whose clack is so grate- ful to the ear. Beyond them an immense forest ex- tends itself, beautified with woods and groves, and full of the lairs and coverts of beasts and game,— stag, bucks, boars, and wild bulls*." Wolves were found sufficiently numerous at a later period again to demand the attention of the government; for Edward L, in the thirteenth century, issued his edict to "Maister Peter Corbet" to superintend their destruction. After this period we hear nothing of wolves iu English history. Hollingshed mentions that, in 1577, wolves were very destructive to th6 flacks in Scotland; and it is said that the last of this * lt Descriptio nobilissimae Civitatis Lurtdonias:" a prologue of William Fitz-Stephen to his Life of Thomas-a-Becket, trans* lated by Dr. Pegge. K 2 . V 100 THE MENAGERIES. ferocious race perished in Lochaber, by the hand of Sir Ewen Cameron, about a century afterwards. They were exterminated in Ireland at the beginning of the last century. In the southern and temperate countries of Europe wolves are now rarely found. In severe winters they sometimes make their appearance in France and Germany; several were seen in the forests near Boulogne in 1818. In Spain the dogs who watch the flocks wear spiked collars, as we have before mentioned, to protect them from the occasional incursions of their enemy. We must refer to the ac- counts of travellers in the northern parts of Europe and of America, for any notice of the appearance of these animals in considerable numbers. Wolves are, in those northern regions, very formidable creatures, sometimes measuring six feet from the muzzle to the end of the tail*. Their prevailing colour is light, with a silvery, black stripe, extending from the upper part of the neck along the back. In the Zoological Appendix, by Mr. Sabine, to Captain Franklins 'Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea,' mention is made of a white wolf, whose length was four feet two inches; length of tail, nineteen inches; and height, two feet ten inches. Mr. Sabine considers it probable, that the loss of colour in the white wolves, in the vicinity of the Arctic Seas, is occasioned by the severity of the winter season; though the change does not occur in all cases. We have mentioned the changes of colour in many of the polar animals in Chap. III., p. 51. Desmarest, though he admits this change, notices the white wolf as a variety be- longing to the description of animals called Albinoes. The peculiar whiteness of the hair or feathers to which albinoes are subject, and which occurs not only * Broke'sTravels. THE WOLF. 101 in quadrupeds and birds, but in the human race, is occasioned by a defect in the colouring matter of these coverings of the skin, and is always connected with a defect in sight, which arises from the defi- ciency in the eye of what is called the mucous pigment. Blumenbach thinks that this deficiency is hereditary in some of the mammalia, so as to form a constant breed of white animals, as in the rabbit, mouse, and horse; and that, in the same way, the ferret, whose white skin and red glassy eyes are well known, is descended from the polecat* The subject of albinoes is intimately connected with some curious facts which have been recently investigated; and which completely prove the intimate connection be- tween, or rather identity of, that substance which gives colour to the skin and hair, and that which regulates the ability of the animal to endure a greater or less degree of light. From a series of experiments instituted to ascertain the power of the sun's rays, it has been established, by Sir Everard Home, that although the absolute heat, in consequence of the absorption of the rays, is greater from a black surface, yet the power of the rays to scorch the skin is thus destroyed—accord- ing to Sir Humphry Davy, by being converted into sensible heat by the absorption. It is thus that the negro has a provision for the defence of his skin, while living within the tropics; and in the same manner, his eye, which is exposed to strong light, has the mucous pigment darker than that of the Euro* peanf. In all quadrupeds which look upwards, as the monkey; in birds exposed to the sun's rays; and in fishes which lie Upon the surface of the ocean, this pigment is dark. In ruminating animals, which look * Blumenbach's Comparative Anatomy, translated by Lawrence and Coulson. | Home's Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, vol. iii. k3 102 THE MENAGERIES, downwards, and in nocturnal animals, such as the cat, it is light; in the owl, it is entirely absent. In the Supplement recently published to his Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, Sir Everard Home has col- lected some further facts on this interesting subject. He says that the " rete rmicosum" a kind of pigment which lines the cuticle upon the surface of the body, and constitutes the tubular cavity that forms hair, is precisely the same substance as that upon which the retina of the eye is spread (which we have called tht mucous pigment) ; and thus, being acted upon by the same circumstances, when the hair becomes grey, the person can only see with a weak light. Baron Larrey mentioned to Sir Everard Home the case of a man who had been confined at Brest thirty-three years, in a subterraneous prison. During the day, he was com- pletely blind, and only saw objects in the dark. His hair was absolutely blanched; and when it first became white, the pigment of his eyes had undergone the same change. With regard to the subject which led us to these curious facts—the white animals of the most northern climates—Sir Everard Home unhesitatingly says, that the shedding of the hair and feathers in the Arctic regions, during the six months in which they are not visited by the sun, is accompanied by the absence of the "nigrum pigmentum" (the black pigment,) by which the animals and birds are fitted to see with the weak light afforded them*. With these facts before us, it may reasonably be believed that many of the white animals of the Arctic regions are, during a portion of the year, when the cold is intense and the days are dark, what are called albi- noes—that is, that with the change of the colour of their hair, the mucous pigment of the eye also changes colour; or, in other words, that the black pigment is absent when the hair periodically becomes * Supplement to Lectures, vol. v., p. 2§2, 182?, THE WOLF. 103 white. We have already seen how this whiteness of the fur enables the animal to bear the diminished temperature, without such a diminution of the warmth of his body as would deprive him of his physical powers; and upon the same beautiful principle of arrangement by an all-wise Providence, which so nicely adjusts the senses and faculties of animals to the situations in which they are placed, the deficiency of the black pigment of the eye enables some quad- rupeds to see distinctly in the faint light of the long- Arctic winter. Upon this principle, M. Desmarest's description of the white wolf, "an animal affected with the albino disease/' is an incorrect one. He is an animal the colour of whose fur, as well as the pig- ment of whose eye, undergoes a change to fit him for the very extraordinary changes of heat and light he is exposed to; and which change of the fur and the eye prevents him utterly perishing, during that inca- pacity to procure his food which extreme cold and darkness would otherwise bring upon him. It is remarkable, that these extraordinary adaptations of the body to climate are confined to the inferior animals. Man is not affected by them to any thing like the same extent; for the colour of the negro's skin is unvarying in certain latitudes, and the albinoes of the human race are so from the effect of disease. We may conclude, from this circumstance, that man, in the cases of adaptation to climate, as in all other cases, is left to derive his protection against physical evils from the exercise of his own reason. The poor Esquimaux, during their intense winters, clothe, themselves with thick furs, shut themselves up in a snow-hut, (the warmest of coverings from the external air,) make fires, and obtain light from oil. Man, therefore, has a defence, in his superior intelli- gence, against the rigours of climate, even in the most exposed situations, He is left to the unaided care of 104 THE MENAGERIES. this intelligence, without that special intervention of Providence, which makes such arrargements for the preservation of the inferior animals as shall come to the aid of their instinct, and stand in the place of those comforts which maybe obtained by the higher faculties of the human race. Man, for instance, is the only animal that can produce artificial light and heat. He makes a fire in the woods, and the mon- keys will warm themselves at it; but no monkey ever yet succeeded in kindling a fire himself. As man advances in civilization, these broad distinctions may be overlooked in the elaborate contrivances by which he heaps up every comfort and luxury around him, —by manufactures and commerce ensuring the pos- session of them, in various degrees, to all the human race. But the ability to construct a steam-engine, and the knowledge which shews how to kindle, the fuel which sets that machine in motion, are equally results of the superior intellect of man, as distinguished from the faculties of the creatures beneath him. "Con- sider the lilies of the field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin." The lilies of the field derive their exceeding beauty, without an effort, from the hand of the God of Nature; but the same God ordains the toiling and spinning for man, to enable him to preserve that place in the creation to which he is destined—the head of all beings which inhabit, this earth,—by the constant and progressive exercise of his reasoning faculties, and by the employment of that know ledge which, from the accumulated experience of past generations, constitutes the power of civilization. In the southern states of America, according to Mr. Warden, the Black Wolf is found. This is, pro- bably, not exactly the variety which is called Canis lycaon, and of which the Menagerie of Paris had formerly two specimens, which were captured hi the Pyrenees. A black Wolf was taken, in the Missouri THE WOLF. 105 territory, by a party engaged in Major Long's expe- dition from Pittsburg to the Rocky Mountains ; and Mr. Say, who accompanied that expedition, has described it under the name of Canis nubilus, or Clouded Wolf. In the Menagerie of the Tower of London, there is, at present, a pair of wolves, taken in America, and presented by the Hudson's Bay Company, whose hair is of that mottled or clouded colour, formed of various shades of black, gray, or white, which determined Mr. Say in his choice of a name for the variety. The Clouded Wolf; Canis nubilus, Say. These animals are larger and stronger than the common wolf; of a fierce aspect, but, in a consider- able degree, without that peculiar expression—that sinister look of apprehension, united with ferocity— which usually characterises the wolf species. Their tail is shorter than that of the common wolf, and their 106 THE MENAGERIES. ears are remarkably short. These individual animals are extremely voracious; and their natural fierceness has not been in the slightest degree changed by con- finement. The head of the American wolf, generally, is larger than that of the European; the muzzle is rounder; and his expression has less of that character which is expressed by the common word slinking. Of the habits of the wolves of America, in which part of the world there are several varieties, we have now very accurate descriptions by intelligent and daring travellers. From those narratives, we may form some tolerable idea of the pest which formerly existed in our own country, before their extirpation. During the arduous journeys of Captain Franklin to the shores of the Polar Sea, he and his companions were often obliged to dispute their scanty food with the prowling wolves of those inclement regions. On one occasion, when they had captured a moose-deer, and had buried a part of the body, the wolves abso- lutely dug it out from their very feet, and devoured it, while the weary men were sleeping. On another oc- casion, when the travellers had killed a deer, they saw, by the flashes of the Aurora Borealis, eight wolves waiting around for their share of the prey; and the intense howling of the ferocious animals, and the cracking of the ice, by which they were sur- rounded, prevented them from sleeping even if they had dared. But the wolves were sometimes caterers for the hungry wanderers in these dreary regions. When a group of wolves and a Bight of crows were discovered, the travellers knew that there was a carcase, to be di- vided; and they sometimes succeeded in obtaining a share of the prey, if it had been recently killed. Even the wolves have a fear of man; and they would fly before the little band, without attempting resistance. The following anecdote is lull of interest:—"Dr. Richardson, having the first watch, had gone to the summit of the hill, and remained seated, contemplating THE WOLF. 107 the river that washed the precipice under his feet, long after dusk had hid distant objects from his view. His thoughts were, perhaps, far distant from the sur- rounding scenery, when he was roused by an indistinct noise behind him; and, on looking round, perceived that nine white wolves had ranged themselves in form of a crescent, and were advancing-, apparently with the intention of driving him into the river. On his frising up, they halted; and when he advanced, they made way for his passage down to the tents." This circumstance happened when the weather was sultry. The formation of a crescent is the mode generally adopted by a pack of wolves to prevent the escape of any animal which they chase. The following passage, from the same interesting work, shews the extreme cunning of the wolves in the pursuit of a creature of superior speed:—" So much snow had fallen on the night of the 24th, that the track we intended to follow was completely covered; and our march to-day was very fatiguing. We passed the remains of two red deer, lying at the bases of perpendicular cliffs, from the summits of which they had probably been forced by the wolves. These voracious animals, who are inferior in speed to the moose, or red deer, are said frequently to have recourse to this expedient, in places where extensive plains are bounded by precipitous cliffs. Whilst the deer are quietly grazing, the wolves assemble in great numbers; and, forming a crescent, creep slowly towards the herd, so as not to alarm them much at first; but when they perceive that they have fairly hemmed in the unsuspecting creatures, and cut off their retreat across the plain, they move more quickly, and with hideous yells terrify their prey, and urge them to flight by the only open way, which is towards the precipice; appearing to know that, when the herd is once at full speed, it is easily driven over the cliff—the rearmost urging on those that are before. 108 THE MENAGERIES. The wolves then descend at their leisure, and feast on the mangled carcases." Ferocious as the wolf of all countries is in the chase of weaker animals, he is ever extremely apprehensive for his own safety. In North America, a bladder hung upon a pole, and blown about by the wind, will deter him from molesting the numerous herds of buf- faloes. He is in continual dread of being entrapped to his destruction. He will always attack a rein-deer when loose; but if the animal is tied to a stake, he fears to approach, considering that a pitfall is near, and that the deer is placed there to entice him to it. The Esquimaux, however, often take him in a trap made of ice, at one end of which is a door of the same abundant material, fitted to slide up and down in a groove; to the upper part of this door a line is attached, and, passing over the roof, is let down into the trap at the inner end, and there held by a peg of ice in the ground. Over the peg the bait is fastened; and the whole machinery is concealed by a false roof. Of course, when the bait is removed, the line slips off the peg, and the door comes down. This contrivance is quite in character with the surrounding scenery; and thus the wolf is deceived, in spite of his habitual caution. Two were taken at Winter Island in this manner, at the time of Captain Parry's second voyage. The Indians in the neighbourhood of Lake Winnipic, which is the reservoir of several large rivers, and dis- charges itself by the River Nelson into Hudson's Bay, were, till a very recent period, principally em- ployed in trapping wolves. They were accustomed to make tallow from their fat, and prepare their skins to exchange with the traders from Montreal. The dealers in fur, associated into a company in Canada, exported to England in one year (1798) wolf-skins to the number of three thousand eight hundred*. * Mackenzie's Voyages, 1801. THE WOLF. 109 As civilization has advanced in these fine provinces, the Indians, and the beasts of the forests and rivers, have been driven further and further into the wilds onward to the coldest regions. But the trade in furs of North America is still very considerable, and is now principally in the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company. Some idea of the destruction o^ animal life, to provide for the comforts and luxuries of 'Europeans, may be formed from the statement which we gather in Captain Franklin's Narrative of his Journey—that, in 1822, the Hudson's Bay Company imported 3000 skins of the black bear, 60,000 of the pine marten, 1S00 of the fisher (a species of sable), 4600 of the mink, 7300 of the otter, 8000 of the fox, 9000 of the Canadian lynx, 60,000 of the beaver, 150,000 of the musk rat; besides smaller numbers of the skins of wolves, wolverines, badgers, and racoons. Amongst the modes of catching* or destroying* wolves practised by rude nations, Pennant mentions that the Kirghese Cossacs (Tartars) take them by the 110 THE MENAGERIES. help of a large hawk called Berlcut, which is trained to attack them, and will fasten on their head, and deliberately tear out their eyes. Amidst this constant warfare of mankind against the wolf, it is not surprising that the character of the species should be that of ferocity, cunning, and sus- picion; that they should be with difficulty tamed; and that the human race should be to them the ob- ject of dread and of aversion. It is probably owing- to the influence of the same hereditary fear, that both the male and female wolf are most remarkably soli- citous for the protection and defence of their young-. The female prepares a nest, or she burrows, (as is the case with most of the American varieties,) in almost inaccessible situations: she lines this retreat with moss, and with her own hair. She suckles her cubs for two months, during which the he-wolf sup- plies her with food. When they begin to eat, they are fed with half-digested meat, which the parents themselves disgorge; and till the cubs are suffi- ciently grown to protect themselves—that is, till they are six or eight months old—the parents invariably watch over their safety. The female. Fox is distin- guished in the same manner for the care of her young. It is to this strong affection for their offspring, in- creasing doubtless with the necessity for protection, that the race of wolves has not, long ago, been extir- pated, at least in Europe. Were the young left with- out the aid of this extraordinary parental care, they would have little chance of escape from the indefati- gable hostility of man. A distinguished writer and naturalist of the last age says, "There are no animals destitute of some means to preserve themselves and their kind; and these means so effectual, that not- withstanding all the endeavours and contrivances of man and beast to destroy them, there is not to this day one species lost of such as are mentioned in THE WOLF, 111 history *." This must be taken with a limitation to the recent races of animals—those "mentioned in history;" for the researches of naturalists have dis- covered fossil remains of animals, differing- from any which we at present know. And yet it is by no means certain that some of these animals do not even now exist, although we are unacquainted with them f. 'The kangaroo, and the ornithorhynchus, two of the most extraordinary creatures of Australasia, with which we are now familiar, were unknown to Euro- peans half a century ago. Large tracts of Africa are yet unexplored; and it is possible that the future en- terprise of such travellers as those who have already penetrated some distance into those regions, may be successful in discovering either the abodes of civili- zation, or, what is more probable, new varieties of ani- mal life unsubdued by man, and essentially differing from those of which the human race has already made a conquest In the menagerie of Mr. Wombwell, there were ex- hibited, in October, 1828, two animals from a cross between the wolf and the domestic dog, which had been bred in this country, They were in the same den with a female setter, and were likely again to multiply the species. A similar circumstance is related by the celebrated anatomist, John Hunter, in the Philoso- phical Transactions for 1787; and he contends, that this fact establishes that the wolf and the dog are the same species. He deduces the like conclusions, from the same fact, with regard to the dog and the jackal. In corroboration of this argument, we may add, Sir Everard Home mentions the intestines of the dog and the wolf as of similar length, while those of the fox are shorter. The length of the in- * Ray's Wisdom of God, in the Works of the Creation, t See Home, Comparative Anatomy, vol. iii. p. 180. l2 112 THE MENAGERIES. testines is important with regard to the habits of the animal. In those wholly of a carnivorous nature, such as the lion, the intestinal canal is considerably shorter than in those which feed even occasionally on vegetables. The female wolf goes with young sixty-three days, producing from five to nine whelps at a litter, whose eyes are not opened till about the twelfth day, likt the whelps of the dog. The average duration of the wolfs life is from fifteen to twenty years. Mixed breed of Dog and Wolf. THE JACKAL. 113 Cants aureus, Linnjkus,—Le Chacal, Fred. Cuvier. We have already mentioned that there is no essen- tial difference in the jackal and the dog; and we have seen that, in the principal point which determines the identity of a species,—the power of continuing' a mixed variety,—the dog\ the wolf, and the jackal, are entirely similar. The difference, therefore, which certainly exists in their characters, must be found in hereditary habit, whether amongst the domesticated or the wild varieties. There are three jackals in the Zoological gardens, "presented to the Society by different individuals. The average length of their bodies is about two feet, and their height, at the most elevated part, of the back, one foot. The length of the tail is about seven inches. The eyes, of which the pupils are round, as in the are small; the tail bushy, as in the fox, but dog, l3 114 THE MENAGERIES, descending only to the heel; the hide covered with a thick hair of middling length, with a very small quantity of fur. The head, neck, sides of the belly, thighs, and outer part of the limbs and ears, of a dirty yellow; underneath and on the sides of the lower jaw, the end of the upper lip, under the neck and belly, and the inner surface of the limbs, some- what white; the back and sides of the body to the tail of a gray yellow, which is abruptly divided from the surrounding lighter colours; the tail a mixture of yellow and black hair, the black prevailing at the extremity; the muzzle and nails black; the eyeballs We have described the jackal thus minutely, for, at the time of Pennant, no specimen had been brought to England; and the popular descriptions of this ani- mal are, therefore, singularly vague. This is remark- able, when we consider the extreme abundance of the jackal in the Levant, and other parts of the eastern world, with which this country has long had commer- cial intercourse. He is found in Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope to Barbary; in Syria, in Persia, and in all Southern Asia. It is considered by the best commentators, that the three hundred foxes to whose tails Samson tied firebrands were jackals. Their habit of assembling together in large troops, so as to be taken in considerable numbers, justifies this con- clusion; for the fox is a solitary animal* To the in- habitants of hot countries the jackal is of the same service as the vulture and the hyama. He does not require living prey to feed upon; but wherever there lis an animal body in a state of decomposition, his nos-e scents it at a great distance, and the air is soon freed1 from the putrescence. But dhe jackal is still a beast of prey; and the asso- * Sec " Fragments, intended as an Appendix to Calmet," 2 vols. 4to. 18001, THE JACKAL. 115 ciation of the species in strong; packs enables them to hunt down the antelope and the sheep. He has been popularly called 'the lion's provider.' The com- mon notion that he is in confederacy with the lion, for the chase of their mutual prey, is an erroneous one. At the cry of the jackal, echoed as it is by hun- dreds of similar voices through the woods and arid plains, the lion, whose ear is dull, rouses himself into action. He knows that some unhappy wanderer from (he herds has crossed the path of the jackal, and he joins in the pursuit Of this nocturnal cry we have read the most fearful accounts. "The chacal's sliriek"*" has been often described as more terrific than the howl of the hyaena, or the roar of the tiger; and it probably is most alarming, from its singular dreari- ness, amidst the lonely regions in which it is heard. It is well described in Captain Beechey's account of his expedition to explore the Northern Coasts of Africa:—*' The cry of the jackal has something in it rather appalling, when heard for the first time at night; and as they usually come in packs, the first shriek which is uttered is always the signal for a gene- ral chorus. We hardly know a sound which partakes less of harmony than that which is at present in ques- tion; and, indeed, the sudden burst of the answering long-protracted scream, succeeding immediately to the opening note, is scarcely less impressive than the roll of the thunder-clap immediately after a flash of lightning. The effect of this music is very much in- creased when the first note is heard in the distance (a circumstance which often occurs) and the answer- ing yell bursts out from several points at once, within a few yards, or feet, of the place where the auditors are sleeping." The difficulty of domesticating the jackal, if it were desirable, would arise from two causes. The one is * Leyden's Poems, 116 THE MENAGERIES. the strong odour which he emits, as filthy as that of the fox; and yet it is said that the skunk (a species of civet) loses its offensive smell in captivity. The other cause is the extreme timidity of the jackal at the sight of a stranger,—he flies when, he is approached, although he attempts no resistance when touched. This is, perhaps, a peculiarity arising out of confinement; for Captain Beechey says, thalrhe has frequently gone close up within a few yards of a jackal in the wild state, before he would turn to walk away. There are several other species of the group Canis, which very nearly resemble the jackal; we may, probably, have opportunities, in the progress of this work, of describing them from living specimens. It appears, from a paper by John Hunter, (Phil. Trans. 1787,) that a female jackal, which whelped in this country, went with young about the same period as the dog; and that the whelps were first blind, as those of the dog. THE FOX. 117 Canis decussatus, Ceoffboy.—Renard croisse, Desmakest. The Cross Fox, in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, differs very little in shape from the common fox. The colour of his fur is a sort of gray, result- ing; from the mixture of black and white hair; he has a black cross on his shoulders, from which he derives his name. The muzzle, the lower parts of the body, and the feet, are black; the tail is terminated with white. This species of fox is a native of North America; and in his habits he differs very little from the fox of Europe. Whether found in the. Old or New World, the fox is the same wily and voracious animal; greedily seizing upon birds and small quadrupeds, either in the woods or near the habitations of man; burrowing with great ingenuity, so as to elude obser- vation, and providing for escape with equal sagacity; 118 THE MENAGERIES. hunted by man; disliked and betrayed by most of those animals who have a dread of his attacks; and extremely difficult to be tamed, even when caught very young. The fox, like the wolf, is the constant object of per- secution, from the ravages- which he commits upon the exposed property in the fields and habitations of men. He has been a destroyer of vineyards from the earliest times; "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines*." He devours honey; he sucks eggs; he carries off poultry; he kills the bare in her form, and the rabbit in the warren. He is, therefore, universally hunted and destroyed. In England, the breed is not extinct, partly from the extreme prudence of the animal, and partly because it is considered unsportsmanlike to kill a fox, excepl in the chase. Fox-hunting, perhaps, furnishes the best excuse for the continuance of a custom which, although it has been called an instinct of man, must certainly be an instinct belonging to a very rude and early state of society. The fox may in some degree be considered a noc- turnal animal; for, in a strong light, the pupil of the eye contracts, like that of the cat. The female fox produces four or five whelps at a litter, which arrive at maturity in about eighteen months, and live, upon the average, thirteen or four- teen years. Having thus noticed many interesting specimens, and given some general particulars, of the family of dogs, we subjoin their scientific character:— The group of carnivorous quadrupeds, known by the name Cards, and which is found in all parts of the habitable globe, excepting a few islands of the * Song of Solomon. THE FOX. 119 Pacific Ocean, comprehends the dog, the wolf, the jackal, and the fox. The teeth of this group are thus arranged :— Incisors, j, Canine, }5r, Molar, I0n Total, 42. They have two tuberculous teeth behind each carni- vorous one. Their teeth are equally fitted for devouring animal and vegetable substances. The tongue is not rough, as in the cat, but per- fectly smooth. They walk upon the ground with their toes, which have curved claws for scratching the earth. These claws are not retractile, or capable of being drawn back within a sheath. Each of the fore feet has five toes, four of which only touch the ground. The hind feet have generally four toes, though in a few varieties a fifth is developed. In the dog, the wolf, and the jackal, the pupils of the eyes are round; in the fox, they are transversely linear. AW?.—-The following engraving, which represents one side of the skull of the jackal, is principally given to shew the form and arrangement of the teeth of "the group of dogs; viz., 6 incisors, or cutting teeth, in each jaw in front; 2 canine, or tearing teeth (tusks) in each jaw next the incisors; and 6 molar, or grinding teeth, in the upper jaw, and 7 in the lower, ranging from the canine teeth to the back of the jaw, on each side of the mouth. Skull of Me Jackal, Chapter V. THE HYAENA. We may often, in the course of this work on Mena- geries, be hurried abruptly away from one species of beings to a very different, species; following, in this respect, the course of the mind itself, which cannot exactly define, although it yields to, some associa- tion of ideas which may appear in themselves to have no essential connexion. For instance, without any great violation of propriety, we might have gone from the sagacity of the dog, which is most developed in its intercourse with man, to the extra- ordinary instinct of the beaver, which is wholly de- voted to the preservation and comfort of its species, without any direction from the intelligence of the human race. The trains of thought, by which any one part of the animal kingdom (limiting even our observations, as at present, to Quadrupeds) may be connected with another, are so various, that we might, not being strictly bound by a scientific arrange- ment, take either the moral or the physical relations by which this great variety of creatures is associated. But we shall generally prefer, as the most obvious course, to be guided, wherever we can, by natural similarities; for these determine the approximating relations as to physical structure, and thence as to the more important habits of the individual quad- rupeds which are presented to our notice; and wherever there are links, as they are both popularly and scientifically called, connecting one species with THE HYAENA* 121 another, and breaking down the abrupt transitions which, to an imperfect observation, might appear to prevail in the family of Nature, particularly to point out those links, as affording some of the most striking of the numberless illustrations of the harmony that prevails throughout all the visible world. It is pro- bably owing to the imperfections of our knowledge, that this harmony is not discovered in every portion of existence; that the gradations, with which the uni- versal law of God's providence works, are not always perceptible to our limited faculties; and that we are thus sometimes startled by the infinite diversity of the. various modifications of being, when, in truth, an accurate examination would exhibit, instead of what we consider abrupt differences, an endless suc- cession of changes, so minute and gradual as to ap- proach to similarities, (links of the same chain,) from the humblest flower up to the highest condition of animal life in ourselves. "There is, in this uni- verse, a stair or manifest scale of creatures, rising not disorderly, or in confusion, but with a comely method and proportion*." The dog—we mean the group which we have de- scribed under the generic name Cards—and the hyaena, are essentially of different genera. Their teeth are very different. This distinction, as we shall have occasion repeatedly to shew, constitutes the principal character by which a naturalist determines the identity, or the difference of the animals which come severally under his observation. It was not a vain boast, when a zoologist exclaimed, " Shew me the tooth of an animal, and I will inform you of the history of a. being which I never saw." By the large- ness of the tooth he could judge of the relative size of the animal which bore it; and by the form of the * Religio Medici, § 33. 122 THE MENAGERIES. tooth he could tell whether it was fitted to grind grass or to tear flesh; and therefore whether it belonged to an herbivorous or a carnivorous species. Carryinor on his inquiries from this point, he could decide, in a great degree, as to the structure not only of the stomach and of the viscera, but of the extremities, whether armed with claws or protected with hoofs; and, looking still onward, he could thus judge of the vivacity of the senses which belonged to the animal, and of the habits which it derived from its peculiar conformation: — knowing, beyond doubt, that there was an intimate agreement in all the pro- perties of its existence; and that every thing in its organization was regulated by an undeviating* har- mony. The dog and the hyaena, therefore, being essentially different in the number and form of their teeth, constitute different genera, without regard to their external appearance. But naturalists are not entirely regardless of outward shape or colour, or even of the more subtle variations of habit, in deter- mining the relations between one group and another; and thus differences as to classification sometimes arise, which are, after all, only settled by a balance of similarities. Within these few years, a quadruped has been brought from Africa, which is common enough about the Cape, partaking very much of the. qualities both of the dog and the hyaena. In the number and arrangement of its teeth, and in the form and number of its ribs, it belongs to the species of dog; partly in form and in colour, in the number of its toes, and, it- is said, in one most important circumstance con- nected with the continuance, of its race, it resembles the hyaena. From these similarities and these diffe- rences it has been assigned by naturalists both to the species of the hyaena and the dog. Mr. Burchell, the African traveller, who first brought a specimen to England, calls it Hyccna venatica, the hunting THE HYiENA. 123 hyaena; M. Temminck, in an interesting memoir especially devoted to the subject, names the animal Hyene peinte, the painted Hyaena; and M. Desma- rest, Canis pictus, or Loup paint, the painted Wolf. The specimen which we have selected for repre- sentation is in the travelling Menagerie of Mr. Wombwell. This animal, which has been several years in England, was brought from the Cape, and was formerly in the possession of Mr. Bullock, of the Egyptian Museum. It was accidentally lamed in the right foot, by leaping out of a window 3 by which the limb is shortened. Hyo extremely ravenous, that a good large village, where I sometimes procured a draught of sour milk ou my duck-shooting excursions, had been attacked the night before my last visit, the town absolutely carried by storm, notwithstanding defences nearly six feet high of branches of the prickly tulloh, and two n 3 138 THE MENAGERTES. donkies, whose flesh these animals are particularly fond of, carried off, in spite of the efforts of the people. We constantly heard them close to the wails of our own town at nights; and on a gate being left partly open, they would enter and carry off any un- fortunate animal that they could find in the streets." With this strong* desire for food, approaching tc the boldness of the most desperate craving, the hyaena, although generally fearful of the presence of man, is an object of natural terror to the African traveller. Bruce relates, that one night in Maibslia, in Abyssinia, he heard a noise in his tent; and get- ting up from his bed, saw two large blue eyes glaring upon him. It was a powerful hyaena, who had been attracted to the tent by a quantity of can- dles, which he had seized upon, and was bearing off in his mouth. He had a desperate encounter with the beast, but succeeded in killing him. In the neighbourhood of the ruins of those cities on the northern coast of Africa, which, in ancient times, were the abodes of wealth and splendour, and wit- nessed the power of the Ptolemies and Caesars, the hyaena is a constant resident, and increases the sense of desolation by the gloominess of his habits. At Ptolemeta, where there are many remains of former architectural magnificence, the fountains which were constructed for the accommodation of an enormous population are now useless, except to the wandering Arab, and to the jackal and hyaena, who stray amongst these ruins after sunset, to search for water at the deserted reservoirs** Seldom does the hyaena molest the traveller in these solitudes; but his howl, or the encounter of his fierce and sullen eye, is always alarming. Captain Beechey says," although we had very frequently been disturbed by hyaenas, we never * Beechey. THE HYjENA. 139 found that familiarity with their howl, or their pre- sence, could render their near approach an unim- portant occurrence; and the hand would instinctively find its way to the pistol, before we were aware of the action, whenever either of these interruptions ob- truded themselves closely upon us, either by night or by day." Such encounters are generally without any fa^al results, if the man does not commence the attack; the hyaena sets up a howl, and doggedly walks away, with his peculiar limping motion, which gives him an appearance of lameness: but when he is attacked, his resistance is as fierce as it is obstinate. The hyaena has always been an object of aversion to mankind; and this feeling has been kept up, not only by the showman's stories of "that cruel and untameable beast, that never was yet tamed by man," but by writers of natural history, from the days of Pliny to those of Goldsmith. The latter pleasant compiler tells us, "no words can give an adequate idea of this animal's figure, deformity, and fierceness. More savage and untameable than any other quadru- ped, it seems to be for ever in a state of rage or ra- pacity." With regard to its deformity, we. are rather of opinion with Sir Thomas Brown, that " there is a general beauty in the works of God; and therefore no deformity in any kind of species of creature what- soever:" and, with him, we "cannot tell by what logic we call a toad, a bear, or an elephant ugly, they being created in those outward shapes and figures which best express those actions of their inward lorms*." That the hyaena can be tamed, and most completely and extensively so, there can be no doubt. "The cadaverous crocuta," (the spotted hyaena,) says Barrow, in his Travels in Southern Africa, "has lately been domesticated in the Snewberg, where it is * Religio Medici, § 16f 140 THE MENAGERIES, now considered one of the best hunters after game, and as faithful and diligent as any of the common sorts of domestic dogs." Bishop Heber saw a gen- tleman in India, Mr. Traill, who had a hyaena for several years, which followed him about like a dog, and fawned on those with whom he was acquainted; and the Bishop mentions this as an instance of "■ how much the poor hyaena is wronged, when he is described as untameable." M. F. Cuvier notices an animal of this species that had been taken young at the Cape, and was tamed without difficulty. His keepers had a complete command over his affections. He one day escaped from his cage, and quietly walked into a cottage, where he was retaken without offering any resistance. And yet the rage of this animal was occasionally very great when strangers approached if. The fact is, that the hyeena is exceedingly impatient of confinement; and feels a constant irritation at the constraint which, in the den of a menagerie, is put upon his natural habits. An individual at Exeter Change, some years ago, was so tame, as to be allowed to walk about the exhibition-room. He was afterwards sold to a person, who permitted him to go out with him into the fields, led by a string. After these indulgences, he became the property of a tra- veiling showman, who kept him constantly in a cage. From that time his ferocity became quite alarming; . he would allow no stranger to approach him; and he gradually pined away and died. This is one, out oi the many examples, of the miseries which we inflict upon animals, through an ignorance of their natural habits: and the same ignorance perpetuates delu- sions, which even men of talent, like Goldsmith, ha\c adopted; and which still, in the instance before up, leads many to say, with him, "though taken ever so young, the hyaena cannot be tamed." It is very doubtful whether any animal, however fierce, is inca- THE HY^NA. 141 pable of being subjected to man. Mr. Barrow pro- cured in Africa a young leopard, which he says "became instantly tame, and as playful as the do- mestic kitten." He adds, "most beasts of prey, if taken young, may almost instantly be rendered tame. The fierce lion, or the tiger, is sooner reconciled to a state of domestication than the timid antelope." And this is evidently a most wise arrangement of Providence, in order that the progress of civilization, with the dominion which man has over the beasts of the field, shall not necessarily exterminate the rae s of the inferior animals. The fierce buffalo of the African plains, by an intermixture of breeds, and by training, becomes the patient ox of European com- munities; the hyaena assists the colonists of the Cape in the business (for to them it is a business) of the chase; the hunting leopard renders the same service to the natives of Hindostan; and the Esquimaux dog, as we have already seen, is, in all probability, a wolf in a state of servitude. The subject of hyaenas is intimately connected with a most interesting branch of natural science, which it would be wrong here to pass over—we mean the discovery of large quantities of bones, which must have belonged to this tribe at a very distant period, not only in various parts of the European conti- nent, but in our own island. This fact, connected with the discovery, from time to time, of the bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, croco- dile, and other animals, in considerable quantities, is one of the most extraordinary circumstances in the history of the globe; and involves a discussion, whether these bones have been brought hither by some great convulsion of nature, such as the deluge, 142 THE MENAGERIES. or whether they belonged to animals which were for- merly inhabitants of this island. Casting a general view over the animal and also the vegetable kingdoms, as they at present exist, we find that animals and plants are generally distributed over the earth in bands or parallel zones, according to the degree of temperature which accords with their respective natures. On the tops of mountains, where the air is cold, we find the animals and plains which are natives of climates near the poles; and in the plains, where the air is mild and warm, we en- counter species which are somewhat similar to those of the countries near the equator. Tournefort, a ce- lebrated botanist, found at the top of Mount Liba- nus the plants of Lapland; a little lower down, those of Sweden; still lower, those of France; de- scending near to the base, those of Italy; and at the foot of the mountain, those of Asia. In the same manner there are zones of different temperature on the whole earth, ascending from the equator, as from the base of a mountain; and each plant or animal is fitted by nature for a peculiar existence conformable. to the climate in which it is found*. When, there- fore, we discover in our own country, and in the northern parts of Europe, the remains of animals which we know are at present the inhabitants of tro- pical regions, we are naturally led to consider, either that the bones have been swept hither from those regions, or that some great change has taken place in our globe, of which this change in the resi.de.uce (called by naturalists the habitat) of animals is the result. Sir Humphry Davy has shewn that a very high temperature was necessary to the production of crystals, and the waters contained in them; and it is, therefore, considered by some geogolists that * See Virey, Moeurs et Instincts des Animaux, Sixionic Le^pn. THE HY£)NA. J43 the surface of our globe has been gradually cooling, particularly as experiment has determined that the metals and waters met with at the greatest depth to which man has penetrated are at present hotter than the surface of the earth is at the equator. The geolo- gists conclude, therefore, that there was a time when the surface of the earth was too hot for the produc- tion of animals and vegetables; that tropical ani- mals were its first living inhabitants; and that there was a period when the climate of Europe was adapted to such animals. Collections of the bones of hyaenas have been found, in large quantities, in Franconia, in the Hartz Forest, in Westphalia, in Saxony, in Wirtemberg, in Bavaria, and in France. But the most remarkable discovery was that made by Professor Buckland, of Oxford, in a cave at Kirkdale, or Kirby Moorside, "Yorkshire, in the summer of 182*2. Bones of a similar nature, some in large and some in smaller quantifies, had previously been found in different caverns of this country; at Crawley Rocks, near Swansea; in the Mendip Hills,at Clifton; at Wirks- worth, in Derbyshire; at Oreston, near Plymouth; and in the cave of Paviland, in Glamorganshire. The cave of Kirkdale is a natural fissure or cavern, extending three hundred feet into the body of the solid limestone rock, and varying from two to five feet in height and breadth. It was discovered acci- dentally in the progress of working a stone quarry, as the mouth was closed with rubbish. It is situated on the slope of a hill about one hundred feet above the level of a small river. The bottom of the cavern is nearly horizontal, and is entirely covered, to the depth of about a foot, with a sediment of mud. The surface of this mud is, in some parts, crusted over with limestone, formed by droppings from the roof. At the bottom of this mud, the original floor of the 144 THE MENAGERIES. cave is covered with teeth and fragments of bone of the following animals :—the hyaena, the elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the horse, the ox, two or three species of deer, the bear, the fox, the water- rat, and several birds. The inference which is drawn by Professor Buck- land, respecting these bones, is, that they were ac- cumulated before the deluge in this cave or den, and that the black mud with which they are covered over is the sediment left by the waters of the flood. The effect of this mode of preserving them has been, that the bones are not at all mineralized; but actually retain nearly the whole of their animal jelly. The bones are, for the most part, broken and gnawed to pieces, and the teeth lie loose among the fragments of the bones. Amongst these the teeth of hyaenas are most abundant, the greater part of which are worn down almost to the stumps, as if with the operation of gnawing bones. Professor Buckland considers that hyaenas must have been the antediluvian inhabitants of the den at Kirkdale, and the other animals, whose bones are found, must have been carried in for food by the hyaenas—the smaller animals, perhaps, entire; the large ones piece- meal. Judging from the properties of the remains found in the den, the ordinary food of the hyaenas seems to have been oxen, deer, and water-rats; the bones of the larger animals are more rare; and the fact of the bones of the hyaena being broken up, equally with the rest, renders it probable that they devoured the dead carcases of their own species. Many of the bones bear the impress of the canine fangs of the hyaena. Some of the bones and teeth appear to have undergone various stages of decay, by lying in the bottom of the den while it was inhabited; but little or none has taken place since the introduction of the earthy sediment in which they are imbedded. THE HYJ3NA. 145 The discoverer of these remains contends, from tha evidence afforded by the interior of this den, that all these animals, whose bones are there found, lived and died in its vicinity; and as the bones belong to the same species which occur in a fossil state in the beds of gravel with which this kingdom abounds, it follows, that the period in which they inhabited these regions was that immediately preceding the formation of these gravel beds by some transient and universal inundation, which has left traces of its ravages over the surface of the whole globe. Professor Buckland concludes, that the accuracy of the Mosaic records is thus satisfactorily established in all essential particulars. The Fossil (or extinct) Hyaena, according to Cuvier, was about a third larger than the striped species; with the muzzle, in proportion, much shorter. The teeth, as to form, resembled those of the spotted species, but they were considerably larger. The powers of the animal, particularly in its faculty of gnawing bones, were, therefore, greater than those of the existing races. The division of carnivorous quadrupeds, called Hyaena, is scientifically distinguished by having no small or tuberculous teeth behind the carnivorous. Its teeth are thus arranged:— Incisors |, Canine {rl, Molar fz*, Total 34. These teeth are particularly adapted for breaking bones, from their thickness. The head is of a middle size, with an elevated forehead; the jaws shorter than those of the dogs, and longer than those of the cats; the tongue rough; the eyes large, with longitudinal pupils; the ears o 146 THE MENAGERTES. long-, pricked, easily moveable, very open, and di- rected forwards; the nostrils resemble those of the dogs. They are digiligra.de, or walk on their toes; theh feet are terminated with four toes, of which the claws, which are very strong;, are not retractile; the fore-legs appear more elevated than the hind. Be- neath the tail is a glandulous pouch. Naturalists have not. ascertained the period of ges- tation, and other circumstances, such as the number of young at a litter, connected with the re-prod uctiou of the hyaena; nor do we find their average duration of life stated by any writer of authority. Shi/l of the Hyama Croatia Chapter VI. THE LION. ^C^r' Felis /eo—Linn.eus. Le Lion—Buffon. The most interesting* object of a menagerie is pro- bably its lion; and there are few persons who are not familiar with the general appearance of this most pow- erful animal. To behold, in perfect security, that crea- tine which is the terror of all travellers in the regions where he abounds; which is said to be able to bear off buffalo on his back, and crush the skull of a horse by a single stroke of his paw—this is certainly gra- tifying to a reasonable curiosity. The appearance of 148 THE MENAGERIES. dignified self-possession which the lion displays when at rest; his general indifference to slight provocations; his haughty growl when he is roused by the importu- nities of his keepers or the excitement of the multitude; his impatient roar when he is expecting his daily meal, and his frightful avidity when he is at length enabled to seize upon his allotted portion ;—these are traits of his character in confinement which are fami- liar to almost every one. The lion, whose portrait is here presented, is a very fine animal in the collection of Mr. Cross, at Exeter Change. He is an average specimen of the African species. The ordinary length of the lion, from the end of the muzzle to the insertion of the tail, is about six feet, and the height above three feet. The uni- formity of his colour is well known, being of a pale tawny above, and somewhat lighter beneath; and his enormous mane is a characteristic which no one can forget. The long tuft of rather black hair, which terminates his tail, may not have been so generally observed; but this is peculiar to his species. The pupils of his eyes are round. The lioness differs from the lion, in the want of a mane; in the more slender proportions of her body; and in the comparative smallness of her head. To understand the natural habits of the lion, we \ must not be satisfied to observe him in menageries, where, ordinarily, his disposition is soon subjected by . that fear of man which constitutes a feature of his character. We may, indeed, observe the form of this magnificent beast; and may occasionally be delighted by his gentleness and entire submission to the com- mands of his capricious masters. But we must com- pare our own impressions of his character with the accounts of intelligent travellers; we must examine the peculiar structure of his body, as developed by skilful and patient anatomists; and we may then THE LION. 149 return to view the lion of the showman with correct notions of his physical powers, and with unromantic estimates of his moral qualities. It has been too much the fashion with writers on natural history to have their antipathies and their partialities towards the ferocious quadrupeds; and thus, as the hyaena has been represented as combining every disgusting and offensive habit, so has the lion been painted as pos- ^sed of the most noble and magnanimous affections. 44 The King of the Beasts" is a name applied to him, with which every one is familiar. In physical strength he is indeed unequalled. He is ordained by nature to live on animal food, and fitted for the desUuction of animal life by the most tremendous ma- chinery that could be organized for such a purpose, regulated by a cunning peculiar to his species. Bui when we investigate the modes in which he employs these powers, we may perhaps be inclined to leave the stories of his generosity to the poets and romance- writers, who (as well as the authors of more sober relations) have generally been too much inclined to in- \est physical force with those attributes of real courage and magnanimity which are not always found in association with it. To comprehend the habits of the lion, we must follow with attention the narratives of those travellers who have seen him in his native haunts. From the Cape of Good Hope, for instance, an adventurous naturalist sets forth to explore the immense plains of Ihe interior of Southern Africa. His journey is per- formed partly on foot, and partly in a waggon drawn by eight or ten oxen. His escort consists of a few sturdy Hottentots, accustomed to the country into which he desires to penetrate—excellent marksmen— and expert in following up the track of every wild or ferocious beast. Further and further he rolls on from the abodes of civilization, and soon finds himself sur- o3 350 THE MENAGERIES, rounded by tribes of Bushmen or Caffres, who live in a rude but contented manner, depending for sub- sistence upon their flocks and upon the chase, and knowing very few of those agricultural arts by which their arid plains might be partially redeemed from sterility. At length he reaches those parts where ferocious animals abound; and where the lion, particularly, is an object of dread. Having passed the borders of European colonization, his fears are first excited by viewing the footmarks of the lion. His Hottentot guides have their tales of terror ready for the traveller, who beholds for the first time the impress of those tremendous feet upon the sands of the plain which he is to cross; and they are ready to show their skill in tracking, if necessary, the prowl- ing savage to his lair. So nice is this faculty in a Hottentot, of tracking footsteps, that Mr. Barrow tells us he will distinguish the wolf from the domestic dog by the largeness of the ball of the foot and the comparative smallness of the toes; and will single out amongst a thousand any of his companions' feet This is an effect of education—an ability produced by the constant exercise of a peculiar faculty, which has been acquired by early training. It is the same ability by which a skilful shepherd is enabled to know every individual sheep belonging to his flock; and its exercise in each case proceeds from that habit of attention which enables the human mind to attain excellence in every pursuit, But even a Hottentot does not discover the. footsteps of a lion without fear. Mr. Burchell, with his man Gert, was in search of a party who had killed a hippopotamus. They were hurrying on through a willow-grove, when the Hot- tentot suddenly stopped, and cried out with some emotion, "Look here, Sir!" Mr. Burchell conti- nues:—" I turned my eyes downwards, and saw the recent footmarks of a lion which had been to drink at THE LION. 151 the river, apparently not more than an hour before. This o;ave a check to our dialogue on the hippopo- tamus; and, in a lower and graver tone of voice, he talked now only of lions, and the danger of being alone in a place so covered with wood." That imme- diate danger passed away, but new fears of the same nature were constantly presenting themselves. Mr. Barrow says:—"It seems to be a fact well esta- blished, that the lion prefers the flesh of a Hottentot to any other creature;" and the same writer states, in another place, that this powerful and treacherous animal seldom makes an open attack, but, like the rest of the feline genus, lies in ambush till it can conveniently spring upon its prey. The best security which man and beast, have against the attacks of the lion, is found in his indolence: he requires the strong excitement of hunger to be roused to a pur- suit; but when he is roused, his vaunted magnanimity is no protection, even for a sleeping foe, as the poets have pretended. We must, however, follow our African traveller a little further in his career of observation. A lower- ing evening comes on; thunder-clouds collect in every quarter; and the night becomes extremely dark. The most vivid flashes of lightning are inter- mingled with the heaviest torrents of rain. The cattle are restless; and the Hottentots are prevented making their evening fire for the cookery of their supper, and for defence against the beasts of prey. On such nights as these the lion is particularly active. The fury of the elements appears to rouse mm from his ordinary torpidity. He advances upon his prey with much less than his usual caution; and he is not at once driven off by the barking of dogs and the sound of muskets. The oxen of the caravan, who appear to scent the distant approach of their terrible enemy, struggle to break loose from their 152 THE MENAGERIES. waggons to escape their danger by instant flight— an escape which would prove their destruction. It is only by keeping with man that they are safe. The repeated discharge of fire-arms has the remark- able effect not only of keeping off the lion, but of abating the restlessness of the cattle. They appear to feel that their enemy will retreat when he hears this demonstration of the powers of the only creature that is enabled, by superior reason, to cope with him. Nights of such harassing watchfulness are not un- frequently experienced by the African traveller*. It is no uncommon thing in the plains of southern Africa to encounter innumerable herds of wild ani- mals, quietly grazing like tame cattle. Wherever the quagga (a species of wild ass), the springbok, and the hartebeest (the Dutch names for two varieties of the antelope), are found, there will be lions, nume- rous in proportion, for the destruction of their prey. Of course those formidable beasts can only exist where the means of their support are to be procured. They are destined to live on animal food; and, therefore, where there are flocks ami herds, whether in a wild or a domestic state, there they will be also. Mr. Campbell states that the quagga migrates in winter from the tropics to the vicinity of the Malaleveen river; which, though farther to the south, is reported to be considerably warmer than within the tropics, when the sun has retired to the nor them hemisphere. He saw bands of two or three hundred quaggas, all travelling southward. They are followed by lions, who slaughter them night by night; and what the lions leave of the carcases oi these unfortunate animals, is devoured by the vultures and the Bushmen. Even the buffalo, whose forehead, when he is of mature age, is completely covered with * See Burchell's Travels, vol. i,; chapter xviii. THE LION. 153 a rugged mass of horn as hard as a rock, the fibres of whose muscles are like so many bundles of cords, and whose hide is little inferior in strength and thick- ness to that of the rhinoceros—even he is not safe from the attacks of the lion. "He lies waiting for him in ambush till a convenient opportunity offers for springing upon the buffalo, and fixing his fangs in his throat: then sticking his paw into the animal's face, he twists round the head and pins him to the ground by the horns, holding him in that situation till he expires from loss of blood*." It has been often stated by travellers in Africa, and the statement has been repeated by Mr. Pringle, upon the authority of a chief of the Bechuanas, that the lion, after he has made his fatal spring upon the gi- ro He when he comes to drink at the pools, is carried away for miles, fixed on the neck of that fleet and powerful creature, before his victim sinks under him. To the traveller in Africa the lion is formidable not at night only; he lies in his path, and is with diffi- culty disturbed to allow a passage for his waggons and cattle, even when the sun is shining with its ut- most brilliancy: or he is roused from some bushy place on the road-side, by the indefatigable dogs which always accompany a caravan. Mr. Burchell has described, writh great spirit, an encounter of this nature:— "The day was exceedingly pleasant, and not a cloud was to be seen. For a mile or two we travelled along the banks of the river, which in this part abounded in tall mat-rushes. The dogs seemed much to enjoy prowling about and examining every bushy place,and at last met with some object among the rushes which caused them to set up a most ve- hement and determined barking. We explored the * Barrow, vol. i. 154 THE MENAGERIES. spot with caution, as we suspected, from the peculiar tone of their bark, that it was what it proved to be, lions. Having* encouraged the dogs to drive them out, a task which they performed with great willing- ness, we had a full view of an enormous black-maucd lion, and a lioness. The latter was seen only for a minute, as she made her escape, up the river, under concealment of the rushes ; but the lion came steadily forward and stood still to look at us. At this moment we felt our situation not free from danger, as the ani- mal seemed preparing to spring upon us, and we were standing1 on the bank at the distance of only a few yards from him, most of us being on foot and unarmed, without any visible possibility of escaping-. I had given up my horse to the hunters, and was on foot myself, but there was no time for fear, and it was useless to attempt avoiding him. I stood well upon my guard, holding my pistols in my hand, with my finger upon the trigger, and those who had muskets kept themselves prepared in the same manner. Bui at this instant the dogs boldly flew in between us and the lion, and surrounding him, kept him at bay by their violent and resolute barking. The courage ol these faithful animals was most admirable.; they ad- vanced up to the. side of the huge beast, and stood making- the greatest clamour in his face, without the least appearance of fear. The lion, conscious of his strength, remained unmoved at their noisy attempts, and kept his head turned towards us. At one mo- ment, the dogs perceiving his eyes thus engaged, had advanced close to his feet, and seemed as if they would actually seize hold of him, but they paid dearly for their imprudence, for, without discomposing the majestic and steady attitude in which he stood fixed, he merely moved his paw, and at the next instant I beheld two lying dead. In doing' this, he made so little exertion that it was scarcely perceptible by what THE LION. 155 means they had been killed. Of the time which we had gained by the interference of the dogs, not a mo- ment was lost.; we fired upon him; one of the balls went through his side just between the short ribs, and the blood immediately began to flow, but the animal still remained standing in the same position. We had now no doubt that he would spring upon us; every gun was instantly re-loaded; but happily we were mistaken, and were not sorry to see him move quietly avay; though I had hoped in a few minutes to have been enabled to take hold of his paw without danger. ''This was considered, by our party, to be a lion of the largest size, and seemed, as I measured him by comparison with the dogs, to be, though less bulky, as large as an ox. He was certainly as long in body, though lower in stature; and his copious mane gave him a truly formidable appearance. He was of that \ariety which the Hottentots and boors distinguish by the name of the black lion, on account of the blacker colour of the mane, and which is said to be always larger and more dangerous than the other, which they call the pale Hoji (vaal leeuw). Of the courage of a lion I have no very high opinion, but of his majestic air and movements, as exhibited by this animal, while at liberty in his native plains, I can bear testimony. Notwithstanding the pain of a wound, of which he must soon afterwards have died, he moved slowly away with a steady and measured step. "At the time when men first adopted the lion as the emblem of courage, it would seem that they re- garded great size and strength as indicating it; but they were greatly mistaken in the character they have given to this indolent, skulking animal, and have overlooked a much better example of true courage, and of other virtues also, in the bold and faithful 156 THE MENAGERIES. Mr. Burchell, as we may learn from the foregoing extract, is not inclined to maintain the courage of the African lion, whatever impression he may have had of his extraordinary physical strength. The natural habits of the lion are certainly those of treachery; he is not disposed, under any circumstances, to meet his prey face to face; and he is particularly unwilling to encounter man when he crosses him in the full blaze of day. The inability of his eye (h< common with most others of the cat tribe) to bear a strong light, may account in a great degree for this cir- cumstance, which has probably brought upon him much of the reproach of being a skulking, cowardly animal. But we apprehend that there were periods in the history of African colonization when the lion was of a bolder nature in his encounters with man- kind; that the dread of fire-arms has become, in some degree, a habit of the species; and that he has sagacity, or hereditary instinct, to know that a flash and a loud sound is often followed by a speedy death or a grievous injury. One of the most remarkable examples of the audacity of a lion is to be found in the Journal of a Settler at the Cape, more than a century ago. The first settlement of the Dutch at Cape Town was in the year 1652: the site which they selected was on the southern edge of Table Bay, and the number of the settlers amounted only to a hundred persons. In half a century the colonists had greatly increased, and had driven the native Hot- tentots a considerable distance into the interior, amongst dry and barren tracts. This is the ordinary course of colonization. In 1705, the Landdrost*, Jos. Sterrebcrg Kupt, proceeded on a journey into the country, to procure some young oxen for the Dutch East India Company;—and he has left a * A local magistrate. THE LION. 157 very interesting- Journal of his expedition, which has been translated from the original Dutch, and published by the Rev. Dr. Philip, in his truly valu- able Researches in South America. The account which the Landdrost gives of the adventure of his company with a lion, is altogether so curious, that we extract it without abridgment:— "■ Our waggons, which were obliged to take a cir- cuitous route, arrived at last, and we pitched our tent a musket-shot from the kraal; and after having arranged every thing, went to rest, but were soon disturbed: for about midnight the cattle and horses, which were standing between the waggons, began to start and run, and one of the drivers to shout, on which every one ran out of the tent with his gun. About thirty paces from the tent stood a lion, which, on seeing us, walked very deliberately about thirty paces farther, behind a small thorn-bush, carrying .something with him, which I took to be a young ox. We fired more than sixty shots at that bush, and pierced it stoutly, without perceiving any movement. The south-east wind blew strong, the sky was clear, and the moon shone very bright, so that we could perceive every thing at that distance. After the cattle had been quieted again, and I had looked over every thing, I missed the sentry from before, the tent, Jan Smit, from Antwerp, belonging to the Groene Kloof. We called as loudly as possible, but in vain,—nobody answered; from which I concluded that the lion had carried him off. Three or four men then advanced very cautiously to the bush, which stood right op- posite the door of the tent, to see if they could dis- cover any thing of the man, but returned helter skelter, tor the lion, who was there still, rose up, and began to roar. They found there the musket of the sentry, which was cocked, and also his cap and . shoes. 158 THE MENAGERIES. "We fired again about a hundred shots at the bush, (which was sixty paces from the tent and only thirty paces from the waggons, and at which we were able to point as at a target,) without perceiving any thing of the lion, from which we concluded that he was killed or had run away. This induced the marksman, Jan Stamansz, to go and see if he was there still or not, taking with him a firebrand. Bit as soon as he approached the bush the lion roared terribly and leapt, at him; on which he threw the firebrand at him, and the other people having fired about ten shots, he retired directly to his former place behind that bush. "The firebrand which he had thrown at the lion had fallen in the midst of the bush, and, favoured by the strong south-east wind, it began to burn with a great flame, so that we could see very clearly into and through it. We continued our firing into it; the night passed away, and the day began to break, which animated every one to aim at the lion, because he could not go from thence without exposing him- self entirely, as the bush stood directly against a steep kloof. Seven men, posted on the farthest waggons, watched him to take aim at him if he should come out. "At last, before it became quite light, he walked up the hill with the man in his mouth, when about forty shots were fired at him without hitting him, although some were very near. Every time this happened he turned round towards the tent, and came roaring towards us; and I am of opinion, that if he had been hit, he would have rushed on the people and the. tent. "When it became broad day-light, we perceived, by the blood and a piece of the clothes of the man, that the lion had taken him away and carried him with him. We also found, behind the bush, the THE LION. 159 place where the lion had been keeping the man, and )' friction with the ground, in moving about. "The second phalanx is triangular. Two of its faces are lateral, and the third placed solewise. On the inner side, or that which is next the thumb, the lateral face presents a kind of contortion, in such wise that the middle part is oblique, and as it were hollow, 178 THE MENAGERIES. An extraordinary instance of a variation of this mechanism, adapted to the peculiar wants of the animal, is presented by the sloth (bradypus). In the lion, the extension of the claws is only occasional; in the sloth they are required to be extended for con- stant use. The position of the elastic ligaments, and of the muscles, is therefore reversed. In the sloth, the ligaments draw down the talons, and the muscles raise them*. The strength of the lion's jaws—the power of the muscles which move the lower jaw—and the con- struction of his teeth for tearing, cutting, and crush- ing animal matter—are popularly known. We shall describe the teeth more particularly when we give the generic distinctions of the cat tribe. There is one peculiar distinction of the lion, as well as of all his congeners, (animals of the same |4 "The third phalanx, or that which bears the claw, is still more singular in its form, in its joints, and its movements. "The figure of this bone is that of a hook formed of two parts; the one projecting forwards, bent, sharp, and pointed, receives the nail, which nearly corresponds with it in shape. The base of this first portion forms a kind of bony hood, into which the lower part (base) of the nail is received, as in a sheath, but in such manner that it cannot be pushed backwards. The second part of the hook is placed behind: it rises almost perpendicularly, and is only jointed with its lower portion; it extends below the joint by two additional parts, (appendices,) which serve for a point of connexion with the muscles, whose province it is to thrust out the claw, or, which amounts to the same, to bend the phalanx. The joints of this bone, in fact, are disposed in such a manner, that when extended, which it is capable of being far beyond die right line, it is really reversed upwards and backwards on the second phalanx of the inner or radial side, in such manner, that the lateral hollow in the second phalanx serves as a case for the third; and that, in this state, the point of the talon, so far from touching the ground, is actually turned towards the sky. "This reversed position is that of repose, in which the phalanx is retained in its place by two sorts of ligaments, viz., the capsular ligaments, and the two lateral ones, which proceed from the second phalanx."—Anat. Comp., Lccoit II., Art, VII, * Home, i. 133, THE LION. 179 family,) which deserves a particular attention. The most obtuse sense of this branch of carnivorous quadrupeds is that of taste. According to Desmoulins, the lingual nerve of the lion is not larger than that of a middle-sized dog. The tongue of all animals of the cat kind is an organ of mastication, as well as of taste. Observe a lion with a bone: whatever flesh his teeth leave on it is scraped away by the sharp and homy points, inclining backwards, of his tongue. This circumstance would render it impossible that the lion, or any of the larger beasts of the same family, could lick the hand of a man, as we read in some fables, without tearing away the skin. The following is a greatly magnified representation of a portion of the lion's tongue. We have thus, somewhat more particularly than will be our usual practice, gone through several of the most striking peculiarities of the lion's structure. His conformation is evidently designed for the de- struction of animal life. We have noticed the roar by which he rouses his prey; the eye by which he sees it in the dark; the sensitive whiskers, and the cushioned foot, by which he creeps upon it without noise; the great physical force by which the spring upon the victim is performed, and the provision 180 THE MENAGERIES. against any injury from the exercise of that force; the powerful instrument with which he strikes his prey, in itself most hard and massive, and armed with retractile claws; the teeth, the jaw, the prickly tongue, by which he is enabled to satisfy his appetite. All these properties form a part of the condition of his existence; and it should be borne in mind that the very nature of his food has a tendency to preserve his character unaltered; to support his enormous muscular strength; to perpetuate his sanguinary habits. The study of Comparative Anatomy, from which science we have collected this account of some of the peculiarities of the structure of the lion, con- stantly presents objects of similar interest. Galen, when studying human anatomy, was so struck with the perfection with which all the parts of the human arm and hand are adapted to one another, that he composed a hymn to the Deity, expressing his admi- ration of a piece of so much excellence. The more we extend our researches into the animal kingdom, the more shall we be struck with this extraordinary adaptation of the parts of living bodies to their re- spective uses; the more shall we be convinced, by our own imperfect knowledge, of the perfection of that Wisdom and Power, whose works are as mar- vellous as they are unbounded. Before we dismiss the subject of lions, we must regard them more particularly as to the character of the species being affected by confinement. Bell, a traveller in Asia, whose work was published in 1762, tells us that the sovereign of Persia has, on days of audience, two large lions chained on each side of the passages to the rooms of state, led there by keepers in chains of gold. This is a species of subjection of which we have very few other examples. We have seen, however, a lion (Nero) exhibited in a THE LION. 181 travelling menagerie (Wombwell's) that permitted all sorts of liberties to be taken with him, even by strangers. As many as a dozen persons have gone with safety into his den ; and some have been rash enough, under the direction of the keeper, to put their heads within his jaws. On the other hand, the natural ferocity of some lions is never completely subdued. About two years ago, an individual that we saw last autumn in a small menagerie, killed a man, who being newly appointed to the charge of the beasts, ventured into the lion's cage, and struck him there. This same animal tore the scalp off a boy's head, who incau- tiously approached too near his cage, in September 1S2S, at Bartholomew fair. The Bengal lion, and the two African lions, at present in the Tower, are very gentle, and allow great familiarities from their keepers. The Asiatic lioness, taken as a cub at the same time with the lion, has had whelps*. As is common with the species, she is particularly anxious for their safety, and, therefore, apparently ferocious. A few years ago there was a remarkable exhibition at Warwick, of two combats between lions and dogs. The tempers of the individual animals were very different. The one, an exceedingly gentle creature, (Nero, whom we have just mentioned,) could not understand that the clogs seriously meant to attack him; and he bore their onset with the greatest pa- tience. The other, of a fiercer and more unsubdued disposition (Wallace), would not endure the liberties of the fierce bull-dogs that were set upon him; and lie very soon made a fearful havoc amongst them. This cruel and disgraceful experiment had its prece- dents. The Romans delighted in such brutal exhi- bitions. Under the Consulate, lion-fights were fre- quent. Sylta caused one hundred to engage together; l'ompey, six hundred; and Caesar, four hundred. * The lioness goes with young 103 days. It 182 THE MENAGERIES, The emperors also found pleasure in these exhibitions of barbarian magnificence. Adrian, it is said, often caused a hundred lions to be destroyed in the Circus; and Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius were equally prodigal in providing such savage excitements for the appetite of the people. It may be judged from these relations, which we find in the Roman historians, that lions were infinitely more abundant in ancient times than they are now. Shaw, a traveller in Africa, observes, that the Romans carried fifty times as many lions, from Libya, in one year, to combat in their amphitheatres, as were to be found in the whole country at the time he wrote, 1738. This is a neces- sary effect of the increase of the human race, and the progress of those arts which denote the advance of mankind in knowledge. The universal civilization of the earth, which it is not extravagant to believe may be accomplished at some distant period, will ex- terminate, except as subjects for curious research, ail the races of those ferocious creatures, which, in tJip. total or partial absence of the dominion of man, are undisturbed possessors of the forests and plains. There are many well-authenticated narratives of the affection of lions for individuals of the human species; and these might lead us to believe that the story was not altogether a fable, which is told by Aulus Gellius, of Androdus, (the Androcles of Buffon,) a Roman slave, being known and caressed in the Circus, by a lion who was destined to tear him in pieces; but who recollected that the unfortunate man had cured a wound in his leg, in his native de- serts. That lions subdue their instincts to protect and foster weaker animals, particularly dogs, is well known. The old lion in the Tower, who spared a spaniel thrown into his cage to be devoured, and lived happily with it for several years, is still in the recol- lection of some persons. A similar circumstance is related by Jean Macquet, a traveller in the reign of THE LION. 183 Henry IV. of France, who had seen a dog at Mo- rocco, under the protection of several lions, to whom he bad been thrown for a meal. Saint Pierre very prettily describes the lion of Versailles, who, in 1793, lived most happily with a dog":—"their friendship," he says, "is one of the most touching exhibitions that Nature can offer to the speculations of a philoso- pher*." Within a few years, the keepers of menageries have been successful in procuring the continuance of the species, from a lion and lioness in confinement. Se- veral full-grown examples have been reared, in this way, in England. The cubs are always playful and harmless; but as they approach to maturity, they in- variably put on the natural habits of the race, and are, generally, as little to be trifled with as those which are whelped in the woods. The nurture of these animals under confinement must, however, have a tendency not only to soften their character, but to render their forms less perfectly adapted to the habits of their native state. The following is a sketch, made in 1818, of a lion which had been reared in a mena- gerie. He was then three years old, and he not only had a subdued expression of countenance, but his back had become distorted, in consequence of his having been pent up in a wretched den. * M6m. sur la Menagerie. Chapter VIIL TIGER, LEOPARD, OCELOT, LYNX, PUMA, AND DOMESTIC CAT. The Tiger—Fells tigris, Linnaeus. The above is the portrait of a remarkably fine tiger, exhibited, in 1829, at Atkins's Menagerie. This creature is particularly gentle, permitting liberties from its keepers which are not so often allowed by the tiger in captivity, as by the lion. Nothing can be more beautiful than the power and freedom of its movements, or better indicate that force and agility, which have so long been the dread of the inhabitants of our Indian possessions. THE TIGER. 185 The Tiger, commonly called the Royal Tiger, is a native of Bengal, the king'doms of Siam and of Tonquin, of China, of Sumatra, indeed of all the countries of southern Asia, situated beyond the In- dus, and extending to the north of China. The species has long been most abundant in those coun- tries; while the Asiatic lion, on the contrary, has only been known within a few years. The average height of the tiger is about three feet, and the length nearly six feet. The species, however, varies con- siderably in size; and individuals have often been found much taller and longer than the lion. The peculiar markings of the tiger's skin are well known. On a ground of yellow, of various shades in different specimens, there is a series of black transverse bars, varying in number from twenty to thirty, and be- coming black rings on the tail, the number of which is, almost invariably, fifteen. There are oblique bands, also, on the legs. The pupils of the eye are circular. Buffon has described the tiger, and so have many other naturalists, as a creature which, in comparison with the lion, deserves all the hatred of mankind, and none of their admiration. "To pride, corn-age, and strength, the lion joins greatness, clemency, and generosity; but the tiger is fierce without provoca- tion, and cruel without necessity." Thus writes the most eloquent of naturalists, taking up prejudices instead of attending to facts, and using his real in- formation for the support of a false theory. Similar ni anatomical construction, the tiger and the lion are similar in their habits; they are equally cats, driven by their conformation to the destruction of animal life. The tiger, perhaps, is somewhat more dangerous, for he has more activity than the lion: the clemency and generosity of both are doubtless equal. There l!*j however, this difference in their characters, which r3 186 THE MENAGERIES, is in favour of the lion. He assists the female in rearing their young-;—the tiger deserts her. The tiger species will also destroy each other, and a fe- male has been known to eat her cubs; but even this is not uncommon with the domestic cat, Redi, in his work "de Generatione Insectarum" says, de- scribing a menagerie, "Among several curious foreign animals was a female tiger, with a cub a few months old in the same cage. This kind mother, upon coming towards Florence, whether out of sport, or fury I will not undertake to say, seizing the cub in her teeth, broke its leg, and severed it from the joint When she perceived the limb thus separated from the body, she devoured it most voraciously, although there was abundance of flesh in the cage besides." Yet the general affection of the tigress lor her cubs cannot be doubted. Captain Williamson, in lis work on "Oriental Field Sports," mentions that two tiger cubs were brought to him while stationed in the Kamghur district in India. They had been found, with two others, by some country people, during the absence of the mother. Being put in a stable, they made a loud noise for several nights, till at length the tigress arrived to their rescue, and replied to them by the most fearful howlings. The cubs were at last let loose, in apprehension that their mother would break in ; and in the morning it was found thai she had carried them off to the neighbouring jungle. As European civilization has advanced in India, the race of tigers, the scourge of the country, has gradually become less numerous. The Hindoos sel- dom voluntarily attempt to hunt the tiger; although he invades their houses and carries off their cattle, and very often the people themselves, whenever there is a village in the neighbourhood of an uncleared waste overgrown with reeds and bushes, called a jungle- The caste of Shecarries, whose business is hunting' THE TIGER. 187 arc not. numerous enough to accomplish this destruc- tion effectually. The active courage of Europeans will generally remove the evil. Some years ago the island of Cossimbnzar was almost completely cleared of the tigers by a German, named Paul, of great muscular strength and undaunted courage, who de- voted himself to their extermination. This man is said to have shot five tigers in one day. His rifle never failed; and his success was such in this de- struction of the scourge of the country, that the enormous overgrown wastes which had almost been surrendered without a struggle to those ferocious creatures, were soon changed into fertile agricultural districts. The East India Company formerly offered a donation often rupees (about twenty shillings) for every tiger that was destroyed within their provinces. The tiger, like the lion, springs upon its prey from an ambush; and, in most cases, he is easily terrified by any sudden opposition from human beings. A party in India were once saved from a tig-er, by a lady opening an umbrella as she saw him about to spring. Our readers may remember the attack of a tigress upon the horses of the mail, on Salisbury Plain, a few years ago. The creature had escaped from a travelling menagerie, and, not for- getting her natural habits, sprung upon the leaders as they passed her. The guard would have shot her, but her keepers drove her off, and she escaped to a bay-stack, under which she crept, and was retaken without difficulty. In narrow passes in Hindostan, travellers have often been seized by tigers; or a bul- lock, or horse, has fallen a victim to the ferocity of tile prowling beast. Horses have such a dread of the tiger, that they can scarcely ever be brought to foce him. Hunting him, therefore, on horseback is a service of great danger. The elephant, on the con- trary, though considerably agitated, will stand more 188 THE MENAGERIES. steadily while his rider anticipates the fatal spring by a shot which levels the tiger to the earth. One pe- culiarity of the tiger is his willingness to take to the water, either when pursued, or in search of the prey which he espies on the opposite bank of a river. The late excellent Bishop Heber, in his journal, has given a narrative of the mode in which a tiger-hunt is conducted, full of picturesque eilcct, and striking from its minute detail:— "At Kulleanpoor, the young Raja, Gourman Singh, mentioned, in the course of conversation, that there was a tiger in an adjoining tope which had done a good deal of mischief; that he should have gone after it himself had he not been ill, and had he not thought it would be a fine diversion for 2\h. Boulderson, the collector of the district, and me. I told him I was no sportsman; but Mr. Boulderson's eyes sparkled at the name of tiger, and he expressed great anxiety to beat up his quarters in the afternoon. Under such circumstances, 1 did not like to deprive him of his sport, as he would not leave me by my- self, and went, though with no intention of being more than a spectator. Mr. Boulderson, however, advised me to load my pistols for the sake of defence, and lent me a very fine double-barrelled gun for the same purpose. We set out a little after three on our elephants, with a servant behind each howdah, carry , ing a large chatta, which, however, was almost need- . less. The Raja, in spite of his fever, made his appearance too, saying that he could not bear to be left behind. A number of people, on foot and horse- back, attended from our own camp and the neigh- bouring villages, and the same sort of interest ana delight was evidently excited which might, be pro- duced in England by a great coursing party. The Raja was on a little female elephant, hardly big'g'i'1' than the Durham ox, and almost as shaggy asa THE TIGER, 189 poodle. She was a native of the neighbouring wood, where they are generally, though not always, of a smaller size than those of Bengal and Chittagong. He sat in a low howdah*, with two or three guns ranged beside him, ready for action. Mr. BouTder- son had also a formidable apparatus of muskets and fowling-pieces, projecting over his mohout's head. We rode about two miles across a plain covered with long jungly grass, which very much put me in mind of the country near the Cuban. Quails and wild-fowl arose in great numbers, and beautiful antelopes were seen scudding away in all directions." The Bishop then describes the beating of the jungle, the rushing out of two curious animals of the elk kind, called the " mohr/' and the growing anxiety of all the people engaged in the hunt. He then proceeds thus :— "At last the. elephants all drew up their trunks into (he air, began to roar, and stamp violently with their fore-feet. The Raja's little elephant turned short round, and in spite of all her mohout (her driver) could say or do, took up her post, to the Raja's great annoyance, close in the rear of Mr. Boulderson. "The other three (for one of my baggage elephants had come out too, the mohout, though unarmed, not caring to miss the shew) went on slowly, but boldly, with their trunks raised, their ears expanded, and their sagacious little eyes bent intently forward. 'We are close upon him,' said Mr. Boulderson; 'file where you see the long grass shake, if he rises talore you/ Just at that moment my elephant stamped again violently. 'There, there/ cried the mohout, 41 saw his head/ A short roar, or rather loud growl followed, and I saw immediately before my elephant's head the motion of some large animal * The howdah is a seat somewhat resembling the body of a S'g> and is fastened by girths to the back of the elephant, 190 THE MENAGERIES. , stealing through the grass. I fired as directed, and a moment after, seeing the motion still more, plainly, fired the second barrel. Another short growl fol- lowed; the motion was immediately quickened, and was soon lost in the more distant jungle. Mr. Boulderson said, 'I should not wonder if you hit him that last time; at any rate, we shall drive him out of the cover, and then I will take care of him.' In fact, at that moment the crowd of horse and foot spectators at the jungle side began to run off hi all directions. We went on to the place, but found il was a false alarm; and, in fact, we had seen all we were to see of him, and went twice more through the jungle in vain "I asked Mr. Boulderson, on our return, whether tiger-hunting was generally of this kind, which 1 could not help comparing to that chace of bubbles which enables us in England to pursue an otter. In a jungle, he answered, it must always be pretty much the same, inasmuch as, except under very peculiar circumstances, or when a tiger felt himself severely wounded, and was roused to revenge by despair, his aim was to remain concealed, and to - make off as quietly as possible. It was after he had broken cover, or when he found himself in a situation so as to be fairly at bay, that the serious part of the sport began, in which case he attacked his ene- mies boldly, and always died fighting. He added, . that the lion, though not so large or swift an animal as the tiger, was generally stronger and more cou- . rageous. Those which have been killed in India, instead of running away when pursued through a jungle, seldom seem to think its cover necessary al all. When they see their enemies approaching, they spring out to meet them, open-mouthed, in the plain, like the boldest of all animals, a mastiff' dog. They are thus generally shot with very little trouble; but THE TIGER, 191 if they are missed, or only slightly wounded, they are truly formidable enemies. Though not swift, they leap with vast strength and violence; and their large heads, immense paws, and the great weight of their body forwards, often enable them to spring on the head of the largest elephants, and fairly pull ihem down to the ground, riders and all. When a tiger springs on an elephant, the latter is generally able to shake him off under his feet, and then woe be to him. The elephant either kneels on him and crushes him at once, or gives him a kick which breaks half his ribs, and sends him flying perhaps twenty paces. The elephants, however, are often dreadfully torn; and a large old tiger sometimes clings too fast to be thus dealt with. In this case it olten happens that the elephant himself falls, from pain, or from the hope of rolling on his enemy; and the people on his back are in very considerable danger, both from friends and foes, for Mr. Boul- derson said the scratch of a tiger was sometimes venomous, as that, of a cat is said to be. But this did not often happen; and, in general, persons wounded by his teeth or claws, if not killed outright, recovered easily enough." There appears to be no greater difficulty in ren- dering the tiger docile than the lion. As the sove- reign of Persia has his tame lions, so have the faquirs, or mendicant priests of Hindostan, their tame tigers, these will accompany them in their walks, and re- main, without attempting to escape, in the neigh- bourhood of their huts. The tigers in the English menageries appear, with a few exceptions, to be ordinarily under as complete control as the species which, for so long a time, has been supposed to possess all the generous virtues of the gemis jells. Several keepers of menageries, during the last few 192 THE MENAGERIES. years, have succeeded in obtaining a mixed breed between the lion and the tiger. Mr. Atkins has ex- hibited cubs, produced at various times, by the union of the lion with the tigress. In September, 1828, we saw two lion-tiger cubs in his exhibition, which had been whelped at Edinburgh, on the 31st of De- cember, 1827. Their general colour was not so bright as that of the tiger species, and the transverse bands were rather more obscure. The little animals were very playful, and the mother was most tractable, suffering the keeper to enter the den, and exhibit her cubs to the spectators. In the autumn of 1S29, this tigress was exhibited in the same den with her cubs, and with the lion ; and the wonder of every spectator was excited by the gentleness of the whole group, who clustered in fondness round the keeper, and dis- played their extraordinary power of leaping, with the readiest obedience to his commands. The tigress produces three or four cubs at a litter, Lion-Tiger Cubs. 193 The Leopard.—Fclis Lcopardus,LiNx^rs. In the garden °f tne Zoological Society is a pair of beautiful leopards, and also a single male. Each of these creatures appears particularly gentle; and we have seen a lady, somewhat incautiously, pat the single male upon the head, when the creature purred like a cat, and exhibited the most unequivocal marks of delight. Mrs. Bowdich, the widow of the distin- guished naturalist, and traveller, has a tame leopard, of which she has published a very interesting ac- count in Loudon's Magazine of Natural History. Leopards, however, like all of their race, appear to be of exceedingly uncertain tempers; and we have more than one instance recorded of their attacking individuals when they have been incautiously left at liberty. The celebrated John Hunter had a fortunate escape, in a contest with two leopards that were con- fined in a \ard of his house. They broke loose, stacked some dogs, and were climbing the wall, when the great anatomist heard the uproar; and, 194 THE MENAGERIES. rushing into the yard, seized upon both of them, and secured them without injury. The average length of the leopard is under four feet, and his height about two feet. The general colour of his skin, and the arrangement of the spots, is exceedingly beautiful. The yellowish fawn ground, which gradually becomes a perfect white on the under parts of the body, is covered with black spots, of a round or oval form, on the head, neck, limbs, and back; while on the sides, and part of the tail, the spots unite in ten ranges of distinct roses, sur- rounding a central area of a somewhat deeper colour than the general ground. In the Panther, there are only six or seven ranges of these roses* The natural habits of the leopard, like, those of all the cat tribe, are compounded of ferocity and cun- ning. He preys upon the smaller animals, such as antelopes, sheep, and monkeys ;—and he is enabled to secure his food with great success, from the ex- traordinary flexibility of his body. The leopards in the Tower, who have a tolerably large cage, bound about with the quickness of a squirrel, so that the eye can hardly follow their movements. In Africa, they are sometimes found of extraordinary size and rapacity. Their relative size principally distinguishes the leopard and the panther, the latter being ordi- narily the larger. M. Cuvier considers them distinct species; although they are doubtless often mistaken by travellers, from their great similarity. * We have been favoured, by a gentleman who was formerly in the civil service at Ceylon, with the fol- lowing description of an encounter with a leopard or panther, which in India are popularly called tigers:— "I was at Jaffna, at the northern extremity of the island of Ceylon, in the beginning of the year 1819; when, one morning, my servant called me an hour or two before my usual "time, with ' Master, master. * Cuvier, Kegne Animal. THE LEOPARD. 195 people sent for master's dogs—tiger in the town!' Now, my dogs chanced to be some very degenerate specimens of a fine species, called the Poligar dog, v/hich I should designate as a sort of wiry-haired gTC}hound, without scent. I kept them to hunt jackalls; but tigers are very different things: by the way, there are no real tigers in Ceylon; but leopards and panthers are always called so, and by ourselves as well as by the natives. This turned out to be a panther. My gun chanced not to be put together; and while my servant was doing it, the collector, and two medical men, who had recently arrived, in con- sequence of the cholera morbus having just then reached Ceylon from the continent, came to my door, the former armed with a fowling-piece, and the two latter with remarkably blunt hog-spears. They insisted upon setting off without waiting for my gun, a proceeding not much to my taste. The tiger (I must continue to call him so) had taken refuge in a hut, the roof of which, as those of Ceylon huts in general, spread to the ground like an umbrella; the only aperture into it was a small door, about four feet high. The collector wanted to get the tiger out at once. I begged to wait for my gun; but no—the lonling-piece (loaded with ball, of course) and the two hog-spears were quite enough. I got a hedge- stake, and awaited my fate, from very shame. At this moment, to my great delight, there arrived from the fort an English officer, two artillery-men, and a Malay captain; and a pretty figure we should have cut without them, as the event will shew. I was now quite ready to attack, and my gun came a minute afterwards. The whole scene which follows look place within an enclosure, about twenty feet square, formed, on three sides, by a strong fence of , palmyra leaves, and on the fourth by the hut. At the door of this the two artillery-men planted them- 196 THE MENAGERIES. selves; and the Malay captain got at the top, to frighten the tiger out, by unroofing it—an easy ope- ration, as the huts there are covered with cocoa-nut leaves. One of the artillery-men wanted to go in to the tiger, but we would not suffer it. At last the beast sprang; this man received him on his bayonet, which he thrust apparently down his throat, firing his piece at the same moment. The bayonet broke off short, leaving less than three inches on the musket; the rest remained in the animal, but was invisible to us: the shot probably went through his cheek, for it certainly did not seriously injure him, as he instantly rose upon his legs, with a loud roar, and placed his paws upon the soldier's breast. At this moment, the animal appeared to me to about reach the centre of the man's face; but I had scarcely time to observe this, when the tiger, stooping his head, seized the soldier's arm in his mouth, turned him half round, staggering, threw him over on his back, and fell upon him. Our dread now was, that if we fired upon the tiger, we might kill the man: for a moment there was a pause, when his comrade at- tacked the beast exactly in the same manner as the gallant fellow himself had done. He struck his bayonet into his head; the tiger rose at him—he fired; and this time the ball took effect, and in the head. The animal staggered backwards, and we all poured in our fire. He still kicked and writhed; when the gentlemen with the hog-spears advanced, and fixed him, while some natives finished him, by beating him on the head with hedge-stakes. The brave artillery-man was, after all, but slightly hurt: he claimed the skin, which was very cheerfully given to him. There, was, however, a cry among the. na- tives that the. head should be cut off: it was; and, in so doing, the knife came directly across the bayonet. The animal measured scarcely less than four feet THE LEOPARD, 197 frcm the root of the tail to the muzzle. There was no tradition of a tiger having been in JafFna before; indeed, this one must have either come a distance of almost twenty miles, or have swum across an arm of the sea nearly two in breadth; for JafFna stands on a peninsula on which there is no jungle of any mag- nitude." The leopard of India is called by the natives the "Tree Tiger," from its habit of ascending a tree, when pursued, or for the purpose of enabling it to spring securely on its prey. It is doubtless able to effect this ascent, by the extraordinary flexibility of ils limbs, which give it the power of springing up- ward ;—for, in the construction of the feet, it has no greater facilities for climbing than the lion or the tiger. It cannot clasp a branch like the bear, because Hie bone called the clavicle is not sufficiently large to permit this action. The Indian hunters chase the leopard to a tree: but even in this elevated spot it is a task of great difficulty to shoot him; for the extra- ordinary quickness of the creature enables him to protect himself by the most rapid movements. The Africans catch this species in pitfalls, covered over with slight hurdles, upon which there is placed a bait. In some old writers on Natural History there are accounts of the leopard being taken in a trap, by means of a mirror, which, when the animal jumps 198 THE MENAGERIES, against it, brings down the door upon him. This story may have received some sanction from the dis- position of the domestic cat, when young, to survey her figure in a looking-glass. In WombwelPs Menagerie there was recently ex- hibited a species of leopard, of a deep black colour, with blacker spots. This animal was somewhat smaller than leopards in general, and of very fero- cious appearance. Black leopards, or panthers, ate commonly found in the East Indies; but it is con- sidered that the colour is only accidental: and it is affirmed, that a black and a yellow cub have been taken from the same nest. Black Panther.—Felis rnclas, Peron. The Hunting Leopard, or Chetah (Felis jubala), which is trained in India for the chase of antelopes, differs in one striking peculiarity from the family ol cats. His claws are very slightly retractile. This THE LEOPARD, 199 species has been imperfectly known in Europe, with regard to its generic character, till of late years; although Bernier, Tavernier, and other oriental tra- vellers, have described the uses to which it was applied. Gesner, an early writer on natural history, tells us that Francis I., of France, had a leopard, which he employed in the chase, and which an at- tendant carried before him on a horse. Ocelot.—Felis pardalls, Linnaeus. One of the most, beautiful of cats is the Ocelot. It is smaller than the leopard, being generally about lliree feel in length and eighteen inches in height. Upon a grey ground, slightly tinged with fawn, are. marked longitudinal bands, of which the margins are perfectly black, and the central parts of a deeper fown than the general ground. These margins of 200 THE MENAGERIES. black, inclosing a deep fawn, become black lines and spots, on the neck, and head, and on the outer sides of the limbs. From the top of the head towards the shoulders there pass several diverging- black bands; and on the top of the back the line is quite conti- nuous. The tail is spotted upon a ground like thai of the body. The ocelot in the garden of the Zoological Society died during the late severe winter. The above portrait is from the specimen in the Tower, which is remarkable for the shortness of the tail. This animal was presented to the King by Sir Ralph Woodford, late governor of Trinidad. It is tolerably docile; and does not seize its food with the violence which distinguishes nearly every other species of the cat tribe. This ocelot is usually fed upon rabbits and birds, upon which it principally preys in a state of nature. The Zoological Society has also been unfortunate in the death of a very beautiful specimen of the Canadian Lynx. This animal, when we saw it in the autumn, appeared very lively, and particu- larly irascible when looking at visiters. It made a hissing noise, and exhibited its beautiful teeth with a considerable expression of anger. The eye was, however, not so brilliant as popular opinion represents that of the lyux to be. This is one of the fables of antiquity which accurate, observation has exploded. Amongst the hunters of America, tb lyux is called the wild cat. Major Denham says, that it is a, timid animal, and offers little resistance when attacked. It is easily killed by a blow on the back. The sharp ears, tipped with a lull of black hair, peculiarly distinguish the lynx from the other cats. Its legs are thick and furry; and its tail, also tipped with black, is short. Its average height is ie THE LYNX, 201 about sixteen Inches, and its length about two. feet six inches. The Canadian lynx is not spotted; and the fur is of a reddish-grey mottled appearance, ex- cept on the under part of the body, which is lighter. This species principally preys on the common hares of the country; and is found in such quantities by the fur-gatherers, that, as we have before mentioned, nine thousand skins have been imported in one year by the Hudson's Bay Company. Canadian J t//n,— Fti 202 THE MENAGERIES. Puma.—Fells concolor, Linn/eus. The above engraving is a portrait of one of the most beautiful of the cat tribe in the Zoological Gardens. This creature appears perfectly mild and playful; sleeping, for the most part, in the day; but some- times rising when interrupted by a stranger, and occasionally knocking about a little ball in its cage, The puma is a native of the New World, and is principally found in Paraguay, Brazil, and Guiana, He is, however, often seen in the United States; but there, as in every other part of the world, civili- zation daily lessens the range of those animals which live by the destruction of others. The puma, in its natural state, is a sanguinary creature, attacking the smaller quadrupeds, and often destroying more than can be necessary for the satisfaction of his appetite. He is alarmed at the approach of men or of dogs, THE PUMA. 203 and flies to the woods, where he mounts trees with peat ease. He belongs to the same division of cats as the lion, by the essential character of the unspotted colour of his skin, which is of a reddish-yellow, or silvery-fawn; but, unlike the lion, he is without a mane, and the tail has no tuft. The average length of the puma is about four feet, and its height about two feet. It stands lower on the legs than the lion, and the head is round and small. The puma, which was long called the American lion, though a large animal, is not an object of oT«tt dread to the natives of the regions to which he belongs. He is easily tamed. D'Azara, the natu- ralist, had one which was as sensible to caresses as the common cat; and Mr. Kean, the tragedian, had a domesticated puma, which was much attached to him. Although there have been instances of the puma attacking and even destroying the human species, in South America they have an instinctive dread of any encounter of this nature. Captain Head, in his k Journey across the Pampas,' has the fol- lowing interesting anecdote of the puma, which, in common with other travellers, he incorrectly calls the lion:— a The fear which all wild animals in America have of man is very singularly seen in the Pampas. I often rode towards the ostriches and zamas, crouch- ing' under the opposite side of my horse's neck; but. 1 always found that, although they would allow any loose horse to approach them, they, even when young, ran from me, though little of my figure was visible; and when one saw them all enjoying themselves in such full liberty, it was at first not pleasing to ob- serve that one's appearance was everywhere a signal :to them that they should fly from their enemy. Yet ]1 is by this fear that 4 man hath dominion over the 'beasts of the field,' and there is no animal in South America that does not acknowledge this instinctive 204 THE MENAGERIES. feeling;. As a singular proof of the above, and of the difference between the wild beasts of America and of the Old World, I will venture to relate a circum- stance which a man sincerely assured me had hap- pened to him in South America. "He was trying to shoot some wild ducks, and, in order to approach them unperceived, he put the corner of his poncho (which is a sort of long narrow blanket) over his head, and crawling along the ground upon his hands and knees, the poncho not only covered his body, but trailed along the ground behind him. As he was thus creeping by a large bush of reeds, he heard a loud, sudden noise, between a bark and a roar: he felt something heavy strike his feet, and instantly jumping up, he saw, to his asto- nishment, a large lion actually standing on his poncho; and, perhaps, the animal was equally asto- nished to find himself in the immediate presence of so athletic a man. The man told me he was un- willing to fire, as his gun was loaded with very small shot; and he therefore remained motionless, the linn standing on his poncho for many seconds: at last the creature turned his head, and walking very slowly away about ten yards, he stopped and turned again; the man still maintained his ground, upon which the lion tacitly acknowledged his supremacy, and walked off." THE CAT. 205 We have thus described the structure and appear- ance, and traced the habits, of several species of the cat tribe; and have particularly seen, that the inva- riable characteristic of the race—of whatever form, of whatever colour, of whatever physical power, the individual variety may be—is a ruling desire for the destruction of animal life. In some species this desire is carried into action with more boldness, in others with more cunning-; but in all there is a mix- ture of cunning and boldness, more or less mingled with a suspicion which assumes the appearance of fear, the unchanging property of all treacherous natures. The creature which lies at our fire-side, leaps upon our table, sits upon our knee, purs round our legs, attends us at our meals, never forsakes our houses, and altogether appears as if it could only exist in dependence upon man—the Domestic Cat— is precisely of the same nature as the leopard or the ocelot. In this case, unlike that of the dog, there is no doubt which is the original head of the domes- ticated stock. The wild cat of the European forests is the tame cat of the European houses; the tame cat would become wild if turned into the woods; the wild cat at some period has been domesticated, and its species has been established in almost every family °1 the old and new continent. The domestic cat has been multiplied with the multiplication of the small noxious animals that fol- 226 . THE MENAGERIES. pedition of Napoleon, and published a splendid work illustrative of the manners and antiquities of the country, has given us a spirited sketch of a camel thus suffering and irritated. "He cries out," says M. Denon, "when he is either laden too heavily or laden unequally. This good animal complains oaly of injustice, and then it must be extreme for him to complain at all." Camel's Head, from Denon, The camel has seven callosities, upon which he throws the weight of his body, both in kneeling down and rising up. These consist of one on the breast, two on each of the fore legs, and one on each of the hind. He sleeps always with his knees bent under his body, and his breast upon the ground. Some naturalists have contended that these callosities are produced by the constant friction to which the parts are exposed upon which they grow, in the same way that a tight shoe will produce a corn. M. Santi saw these seven callosities upon a camel just born; and he is unwilling to believe, that they are an hereditary effect of the labour to which the species has been subjected for many centuries. This is an opinion which these naturalists have adopted, and it has been echoed by historians: Gibbon says the camel bears marks of servitude. For the same THE CAMEL. 227 reason, that he is born with it, M. Santi doubts the opinion which has also been expressed, that the hump on the back of the camel is an here- ditary effect of constant pressure upon that part. We are only acquainted with the domesticated camel: for although M. Desmoulins, a distin- guished French naturalist, asserts that the camel existed in a wild state in Arabia, in the time of Adrian (a.d. 117), and the natives of Central Africa maintain that they are to be found wild in the mountains where Europeans have never penetrated, i; is highly probable that these statements refer to individual camels wandering from the controul of man. We know nothing distinctly of the camel, but as one of the most useful and important ser- vants of the human race; and, therefore, we have no means of contrasting a wild with a domesticated species. But, in the absence of positive evidence to the contrary, it is more easy to believe that the original organization of the camel should have been adapted to the services to which it is des- tined, than that the services should have altered the organization. The callosities enable the animal to receive its load, (in the only position in which man could put on that load,) by preventing the fracture of its skin by the pressure, either when it rises up or kneels down; and the hump on the back is so far from being a callosity produced by friction, that it is a soft, fatty substance, which is gradually absorbed into the system when the animal is without food, and is renewed when he obtains pasturage,—an evident proof that it is one of the several admirable provi- sions which he possesses for his support in the desert. We could as readily believe that the wonderful me- chanism of the camel's stomach, by which it is ena- bled to abstain from water for many days, is a result °f its habits, instead of its powers of abstinence 22S THE MENAGERIES. being a consequence of this construction,—as that its hump and its callosities are merely hereditary badges of its subjection to man; and yet this opinion, monstrous as it is, has been adopted by a distinguished naturalist—as we shall have occasion more particularly to notice. The uses which the camel has served in the civiliza- tion of mankind, in those countries of the East where civilization first commenced, have been of such import- ance, that they would fairly enter into the scheme of a wise and beneficent Providence. Unless such an animal had existed in Asia, (a country intersected by immense arid plains, and impassable with burthens, except by a creature possessing* at once great strength and an extraordinary capacity of enduring privation,) the intercourse of mankind would have been confined to small spots where abundance reigned; the commo- dities of one part of that immense region could not have been exchanged for those of another; com- merce, the great moving principle in the extension of civilization, would have been unknown; and know- ledge would have been limited to particular districts, and would there have been of the most stunted and feeble growth—in the same way that a native crab-stock produces sour and worthless fruit, till some slip from the tree of another climate is grafted upon it. Thus, instead of the learning of the Hindoos and the Egyptians being communicated from one region to the other'*, and thence, spread- ing over Greece, becoming the imperishable pos- session of the human race,—and instead of the produce of the East being brought to the West, to induce that taste for comforts and luxuries which principally developes the human intellect,—that, por- tion of mankind which was first civilized would pro- bably at this day have been in the same state of * See Frederic Schlegel's History of Literature. THE CAMEL. 229 ignorance as the Indians of South America, whose communications are cut oif by sandy deserts and inaccessible mountains, and who thus believe that the affairs of their mission (a settlement of a few hundred natives under a priest) comprise everything that can be of interest to any individ ual of the great family of man *. The camels of Pisa walk at the rate of about three miles an hour, and they travel about thirty miles a day: they are rarely put out of their long- stride into a trot, and the pace appears painful to them. It should seem that the establishment of the stud of San Rossora has been advantageous to the district. It would be impossible, say the people who employ them, to have any creatures more docile, more indus- trious, and more easily satisfied, than these poor camels. They are accustomed to cany round the neighbourhood of San Rossora the wood, hay, and straw which the forests and domain produce; and the carriage of these articles furnishes them a suffi- cient employment. Some neighbouring proprietors have occasionally bought camels from the establish- ment, and the price of a young one has been about twenty pounds sterling; but this speculation has seldom answered, partly from the deterioration of the species upon any rich soil and with abundant food, and partly from the injury which they invariably do to trees and shrubs, by gnawing their bark. It appears that a camel of Pisa is sometimes sold to he led about as a show; and it is therefore pro- bable that the camels of our streets may occasionally he brought from San Rossora, instead of being natives of Asia or Africa; and that from this dege- nerated species we can form no adequate idea of what the Arabians call "the ship of the desert;"— °* an animal which, however dull and ugly he may * See Humboldt, Voyages aux Regions Equinosiales. 230 THE MENAGERIES. appear, has been described by the Eastern poets as even beautiful in his movements. The bride, in her nuptial attire, is represented "moving* gracefully as a young camel,"—an image which may probably have some truth when applied to the creature in his proper situation, and is, perhaps, an evidence in fa- vour of a once popular theory, which attempted to found the idea of beauty upon that of utility. The ordinary duration of the life of those camels of Pisa which are employed in labour, is about twenty years. The females, and those males that do not work, live to twenty-five, and even to thirty years. M. Santi mentions a singular circumstance, which in some degree confirms an assertion of Pliny, thai there is a natural antipathy between the camel and the horse. Many naturalists, he thinks, have expressed their disbelief of this without sufficient examination. It is necessary at Pisa gradually to accustom the horses of the neighbourhood to the sight of the camels, and even to place them together while a horse is training; for without this precaution, there would be constant accidents. If the horse of a [Horse and Camel of San Rossora, THE CAMEL. 231 stranger passes through the neighbourhood, imme- diately that he sees the camel, which he may often do, both in the town and in the country, he sets up his mane, stretches out his ears, trembles, paws the ground, and sometimes, taking the bit between his teeth, runs away in the most bewildered terror*. We subjoin the concluding observations of the Memoir of M. Santi:— "The dromedary of Pisa is an inferior and weaker variety than the Arabian dromedary; such, perhaps, as the lohk of the Persians: or, rather, the race has deteriorated in consequence of the difference of cli- mate and of food, and through a life less hard and active than that to which it was accustomed in its native region. "My observation of our dromedaries, of their habits and their conformation, has convinced me that they were formed by Nature with such a pecu- liar economy, as to require only the most scanty nourishment, and that of the coarsest kind, to support existence. The dromedary has the head singularly small, the neck slender, the body lean, the limbs almost fleshless, the jaws and teeth sufficiently strong to crush thorns and bushes, the branches of trees, and even the husks of dates. He easily fills his small and contracted stomach, and he ruminates Ms food: he is provided with a bag, or reservoir, in which he may make an ample provision of water to serve him in the time of need, having the power to force the liquid back into his first stomach, and even to his mouth, to allay his thirst, and soften, by rumi- nation, the hard and dry herbs upon which he feeds: the large lump which he has on his back is a mass °f fat, destined to supply the want of food by ab- sorption. It is through this peculiar structure that * See p. 249. x2 232 THE MENAGERIES. the camel has become the inhabitant of fiat countries —sandy, sterile, and arid. Gentle, peaceable, and without defence, he had an asylum against the attacks of beasts of prey in those deserts where they could not exist; but with man, especially, he found his protection. Without his help, the camel species, would, perhaps, have been numbered amongst those quadrupeds which, formerly existing on the earth, are now lost, and are known only by those remains which such naturalists as M. Cuvier have been able to rescue from oblivion." The Moors brought the camel into Spain; and long after the conquest of Granada they were com- mon in the south of that country. The species is now entirely extinct, probably from the same influence of soil and climate that has caused their deterioration at Pisa. San Rossora is therefore at present the only place where the camel is bred in Europe. Asia is, without doubt, the original country of the camel. The earliest mention of commerce in (he Sacred Writings is associated with the caravans. When the brethren of Joseph had cast him into a pit, "they sat down to eat bread; and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold a company of hh- maelites came from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery, and balm, and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt*." It would appear, from this mention: of spices, and from the more particular notice or cinnamon in the third chapter of Exodus, that the products of India were exported into Egypt and Palestine; for cinnamon is an exclusive production of India, although the ancients erroneously supposed this spice, as well as all the other spices of commerce, to have grown in Arabia. The Arabians were the great carriers, in the early times, of the valuable pro*. * Genesis, c. xxxyii.j v. 25. THE CAMEL. 233- duce oi the Indian peninsula. Isaiah speaks of the commerce of Sabaea, or Sheba (Arabia Felix) :— "The merchants of Sheba and Ramah, they were thy merchants; they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious gold and stones/ This commerce was probably for many centuries en- tirely carried on by land, and chiefly by the agency of the camel; but we learn from the Journal of Nearchus, a navigator of the time of Alexander the Great, whose work has come down to us, and has been admirably translated and commented upon by Dr. Vincent, that the Arabians, three hundred years before Christ, traded to India by sea. In the time of Pliny, this active people had considerable factories on the coasts of Malabar and Ceylon. The Arabians carried their merchandise across the deserts to Egypt; and whilst they thus possessed a monopoly of the Indian trade as regarded Egypt, the Egyptians held the same monopoly as regarded Europe. The camel of Asia is frequently mentioned, not only by sacred but profane writers, as connected with the warlike operations of the Eastern people, as well as with their commerce. It was a custom of the nations of Judea, when they went to battle, to adorn their camels with studs and collars of gold:—" And Gideon arose, and slew Zebah and Zalmunna, and took away the ornaments that were on their camels' necks*." The same practice of adorning camels is said to prevail, at the present day, in many of the countries of Asia f. In Egypt, the camel was known from the earliest antiquity; tor in the twelfth chapter of Genesis we find it stated, that Pharaoh bestowed camels upon Abram, when he came with his wife into that country. And yet the camel is never found * Judges, c. viji., v.. 21. f Goguet, Origine des Loix;tomeii. x3 234 THE MENAGERIES. represented in the ancient sculptures and paintings of Egypt. In a building at Ghirza, in the state of Tri- poli, Major Denham found the remains of a Roman temple, probably executed after the Christian era, of which he has given a drawing ;—and upon the frieze of the entablature we observe a delineation of the camel. Near Mount Sinai, in Syria, there are rude representations upon the rocks, which are descrioed by Niebuhr and Burckhardt, of goats, and antelopes, and camels. But with regard to Egypt, Burckhardt says, in a note to the passage where he mentions these figures, which appear to have been cut by the shepherds of the country, "Among the innumerable paintings and sculptures in the temples and tombs of Egypt, I never met with a single instance of the representation of a camel At Thebes, in the highest of the tombs, on the side of the Djebil Habow, called Abd el Gorne, which has not, I believe, been noticed by former travellers, or even by the French in their great work, I found all the domestic animals of the Egyptians represented together in one large painting upon a wall, forming the most elaborate and interest- ing work of the kind which I saw in Egypt. A shepherd conducts the whole herd into the presence of his master, who inspects them, while a slave is noting them down. Yet even here I looked in vain for the camel" Whether we are to infer from this circumstance that the camel was only partially known in Egypt, and did not cross the Nile till a period more recent than that of the Egyptian temples, we will not undertake to determine. M. Desmoulins, however, has written a very learned, and, in most respects, satisfactory essay, to prove that the camel , was not spread over Africa till after the Christian era*.; He considers that the question of the existence, or the * M6moire lu at l'Institut, 28 Juin, 1823. THE CAMEL. 235 absence, of the camel in Africa, at the periods of the great prosperity of that country, inasmuch as it belongs to the history of civil society, and to the theory of the means by which society is established and perfected, demands an especial solution. He shows, on the one hand, that, from the highest antiquity, the camel was employed in the domestic and military service of the Asiatic people ; and that the ancient writers constantly speak, both incidentally and directly, of this animal, when they notice Asia generally, or Arabia particularly. On the contrary, he affirms that all the Greek or Latin writers from the time of Herodotus, in describing the wars with Africa, or the peaceful voyages that were made thither,—whether their descriptions be given as geographers or naturalists,—whether they describe the singularities of the country, or enumerate its animals,—never once mention the camel. M. Des- moulins maintains, that the necessity of the subject would have compelled such notices, if the animal had existed on the African continent. He goes on to show, from various authorities, and inferences which appear sound, that until the third century of the Christian era, there were no camels west of the Nile; that these animals did not pass the isthmus of Suez until the first excursions of the Arabs, or Saracens, who, about the middle of the fourth century, accord- ing to Ammiamis Marccllinus, wandered with their camels upon the deserts which ex4end from Assyria to the cataracts of the Nile. The appearance of camels on the west of the Nile took place, he affirms, for the first time, when the Vandals and Moors revolted, after the departure of Belisarius for the reconquest of Italy. It has often been remarked as singular, that Procopius first notices camels in Africa, when he describes the Moors, in arms against the lieutenant of Belisarius, as mounted on them: this was in the middle of the sixth century. M. Desmoulins concludes, that from 236 THE MENAGERIES. the time of their first introduction by the wandering; Saracens, two centuries before, they had multiplied over the great desert of Africa, Sahara, in the same proportion as the Arab tribes had spread thereon; and he shows that there is nothing to be thought extraordinary in this rapidity of their multiplication, when we consider the immense increase of ho.-ses and oxen in the Pampas of Buenos Ayres and the Llanos of Apuria, from the period of the discovery of America. M. Desmoulins contends, from these circumstances, that the camel is not a native of Africa; but that the original species came from Arabia, where it existed in a wild state in the time of Artemidorus, as mentioned by Diodorus and Strabo. At the time when the camel was unknown in Africa, beyond the Nile, the country was overrun with lions. We have already mentioned, in the chapter on the Lion, that many hundreds of lions were annually sent to Rome by the kings and proconsuls of Africa, for the brutal amusements of the Circus. About the middle Of the third century, which corresponds with the period of the Arabian emigration into Africa, the number of lions diminished; and their destruction became so rapid, that the chase of the lion was for- bidden, except to particular individuals, lest the Cir- cus should want its victims. This game law of the Romans was abrogated under Honorius. The de- struction of the lion8 then became, in great measure, complete: the people could cultivate their land, with- out being exposed to danger from this fearful beast; and they introduced camels, to facilitate the commu- nication from one place to another, without the apprehension that these, the most valuable of their servants, would be devoured in the plains where they sought their subsistence. The civilization of mankind is advanced or retarded by apparently trivial causes: the vast number of lions in Africa checked, in all THE CAMEL. 237 probability, the progress of civilization in the interior of that country, at the period when Carthage was powerful, and Egypt enlightened; and it is not un- reasonable to conclude, that the influence of these causes may have been felt through centuries, in per- petuating the ignorance and wretchedness of many of the African tribes. The lion is represented as having an especial partiality for the flesh of the camel. Herodotus states that while Xerxes was on his march for the invasion of Greece, lions came down from the mountains and devoured the camels which carried his luggage, without attacking either horses or men *. The Arabian tribes, who penetrated into Africa in the third century, were a wandering and pastoral people. They carried with them the habits of their native country: they lived in tents; they encamped wherever they found pasture for their camels; the arts of agriculture, which bind mankind to a parti- cular spot, were either unknown to them, or de- spised; the milk of their camels served them for food, with the fruit of the palm-tree (the date), which was spread in abundance over that immense region. This life of adventure was preferred to all others; and its very privations constituted an excite- ment peculiarly adapted to their character. The alternations of want and abundance—the trackless desert where their camels would wander for whole days without grass or water, succeeded by some green oasis, or fountain surrounded with verdure, where they might repose till they were weary of rest, again to march forward and explore new regions,— these were scenes which offered to them enjoyment eighteen hundred years ago, and in which the de- * Lib. vii. 238 THE MENAGERIES. scendants of the same people still find delight. But when a more civilized portion of the same nation,— the merchants who had traded with India, and who were the depositaries of all the refinements and all the learning of the East,—pressed forward, two cen- turies afterwards, to drive the Romans from their African possessions, and to establish themselves en the shores of Barbary, which were then called wt the garden of the world," they brought with them all the physical and intellectual riches of civilization; and, subsequently, Arabian science and Arabian literature presented the sole exhibition of the activity of intel- lect, during the general sleep of the European mind. An old author has well described this extraordinary contrast between the Arabians and other people:— "And in these times was great ignorance of good learning in the Latine church, when good disciples flourished exceedingly among the Mahomedans. Yea, whatsoever the Latines writ, after the industry of the Arabians had acquainted them with their ignorance, is wholly to be ascribed to the Arabians, both their philosophy, physicke, and mathematics; for they had no Greek author, which was not first translated into Arabike, and thence into Latin, as Ptolemy, Euclid, and the rest; till Constantinople being taken by the Turks, the Greek exiles brought us back to the foun- tains. John Leo testifies, that many ancient authors and great volumes are amongst them, translated out of the Latine, which the Latines themselves have lost*." The camel was the favourite animal of the Arabians, although the horse was perhaps more prized by individuals; and whilst the people of the desert never, ceased to employ him in their migra- tions, those of the towns on the coast of the Mediler- * Purchas, his Pilgrimage, chap. ii. § 4. THE CAMEL. 239 ranean carried on an intercourse, through the camel, with the interior of the great African continent—an intercourse which subsists to the present day. When the Arabs subjected Spain to their dominion, they carried the camel with them, as we have already noticed. The animal remained in the country after their expulsion by the Christians. Had this valuable creature been bestowed upon South America at the time of the conquest, it would have done much for the civilization of the native tribes, and for the general prosperity of that immense region; and have com- pensated in some degree for the evils which the Spaniards inflicted on the inhabitants of the New World. Some of the burning plains which separate one district of South America from the other, are, like the deserts of Africa, impossible to be crossed with merchandise in any way but by means of the enduring camel. Wherever there are immense arid districts to be traversed between one people and another, and wherever the surface of the country presents insur- mountable obstacles to the construction of canals (such as the isthmus of Panama, the plain of Mexico, and the deserts which separate the kingdom of Quito from Peru, and Peru from Chili), the camel would oiler the most important aid to internal comunica- tion and to profitable commerce, and thence to that interchange of knowledge which follows in its train*. An attempt was made, some time after the conquest, to bestow this blessing upon Spanish America; but the cruel prejudices and avarice of the rulers of that unhappy country prevented the realization of the in- tended good. A Biseayan, Juan de Reinega, at his own cost, carried some camels from Spain to Peru. At the end of the sixteenth century, Father Acosta, * See Humboldt, Essai Politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne, tome i'p. 23- tome ii. p. 689. 240 THE MENAGERIES. who wrote a natural history of the Indies, saw some of these animals at the foot of the Andes; but they were taken little care of, and the race soon became extinct. They were neglected, because the labour which the Spaniards required could then be per- formed in the accustomed manner, and with less exertion to themselves. The Indians were the beasts of burden; and they were driven by hundreds at the bidding of their Spanish lords (encomenderos), either to carry merchandise across the Cordilleras, or to follow the armies in their expeditions of discovery and pillage*. Under this oppression, the Indians gradu- ally perished ; but a long subjection had broken their spirit, feeble at the best. The introduction of camels by Juan de Reinega was resisted as an innovation by the encomenderos, and the court of Spain thought the complaint a just one. In this way the native population was gradually extirpated; and South America, fertile in all the riches of a bounteous nature, remained a country of tyranny and suffering1 —of partial luxury and general want—a land of mines and of deserts, for three centuries. A better state of things has arrived, and the people have begun to understand the value of the camel. Several of these useful animals have been imported into the country; and Humboldt saw them on a burn- ing soil, feeding under the palm-tree, near New Valencia. These camels were brought from the Canary Islands. There are many thousands in the islands of Lancerote and Fortaventure, where they have a climate and vegetation analogous to those of the African continent. They were brought to these islands in the fifteenth century. At Tenerifle, their number is small. Humboldt describes some * See Humboldt, Voyages aux Regions Equinoxiales, book v» chap, xvi, THE CAMEL, 241 white camels near Ste'. Croix, bearing very mode- rate burthens. They are principally employed to carry merchandise from the custom-house to the ware- houses *. We have thus taken a rapid view of the ancient history of the camel, and the present distribution of this most valuable animal over the globe. We have endeavoured to show that this creature, having- a very peculiar organization, adapted to the services which it performs, has been, from the earliest antiquity, one of the most important agents in the communications between one people and another in particular regions, where, without his aid, civilization would never have spread. We perceive, upon the authority of a most bag-acious and philosophical inquirer (Humboldt), that the importance of the camel to mankind does not stop at his native country, nor in Africa, but that the help of this servant of man is still extensively re- quired in the vast regions of South America. In the mxt chapters we shall describe the camels of the caravan, and of the wandering Arabs, as they exist at present, condensing the accounts of many authen- tic volumes of travels; and, whilst we thus hope to gratify a reasonable curiosity, we shall at least accomplish some good if we show that the poor, limping, apparently stupid, and, to some eyes, ugly creature, which is led about our streets, has been, and still is, one of the greatest blessings which ^ been bestowed upon the human race" by that Providence which adapts every animate and inani- mate being to its particular ends in the economy of die world. When the Arab halts on his weary march, a< takng the heavy saddle from his patient . beast> s^s down for an hour of rest and refreshment, * Voyages aux Regions Equinoxiales, book i. chap. ii. Y 242 THE MENAGERIES. he doubtless often thinks of the benefits which he receives from the faithful slave which stands by his side, and he is grateful and kind to him. Such a group Denon has delineated. Halt of Camels. Chapter IX, THE CAME L,—(continued). L\ the countries of the East, amongst the many remarkable contrasts which the natural productions and the customs of the people present to those of Europe, there is nothing- more striking than the uni- versal employment of the camel. It is not necessary to penetrate into the interior of Asia to witness this great change in the mode by which commercial ope- rations are conducted. For instance, the merchant who visits the seaport of Smyrna, the great point of traffic between the Franks and the Turks, sees this new animal power everywhere around him, per- forming those services which he has been accus- tomed to observe executed by the horse and the mule; and even superseding, and rendering unne- cessary, that great medium of more advanced com- munication—canal carriage. Burckhardt, the cele- brated traveller, says, *' In countries where camels are bred in great numbers, land-carriage is almost as cheap as that by water. The carriage for a camel- load of goods, weighing from six to seven hundred pounds English, from Bagdad to Aleppo, a distance of six hundred miles, is four pounds*." AH labour, of course, is cheaper in countries where the people are contented with scanty fare, and know nothing of those luxuries which almost the meanest among us enjoy; but the great abundance of camels, and the easy rate at which they are maintained, render this animal power the readiest instrument of commercial * Travels in Nubia. 4to. p. 120. y2 244 THE MENAGERIES. intercourse. The use of it is therefore universal throughout Asia Minor, a country where considerable trading adventures are carried on, and from which [Europeans, and particularly the English, derive large supplies of the valuable productions of a fertile soil sind a delicious climate. Through the kindness of a gentleman who resided several years at Smyrna, and who has just published ;a very interesting narrative of what he saw in Asia Minor*, we have received some lively descriptions of ithe impressions which he derived from his observa- tions of this useful animal. He was lodged with a .merchant of Smyrna, who largely exported the fruits of the interior. To the house of the merchant was .attached a large court-yard, and here a portion of Hie caravan, principally laden with figs, arrived at stated seasons. The number of camels which came from time to time was considerable, but they entered and departed with a peculiar silence, The camel's tread is perfectly noiseless. The foot, composed of an elastic substance, and covered with hair, falls on the pavement in a manner very different from the rattling of the iron-shod horse. The large creature moves along, under a heavy load, with no greater noise than is made by the. deer that bounds over the mossy turf. Mr. Macfarlane thus describes this pe- culiarity :—" What always struck me as something .extremely romantic and mysterious, was the noiseless step of the camel, from the spongy nature of his \ foot. Whatever be the nature of the ground—sand, or rock, or turf, or paved stones, you hear no foot- fall; you see an immense animal approaching you stilly as a cloud floating on air; and unless he wear a bell, your sense of hearing, acute as it may he, will give you no intimation of his presence." In a * Constantinople in 1828, by Qharjes Macfarlane, Esq. 4to. 1829. THE CAMEL, 245 book which we shall have occasion to notice more particularly (4 Riley's Shipwreck and Captivity in vhe Great Desert'), the silent passage of a train of camels up a rocky steep near Santa Cruz, " because their feet are as soft as sponge or leather,'' is well contrasted with " the. clanking sound of iron against the stones which announced the approach of horses or mules that were shod*." But the noiseless move- ment of a caravan of camels is also produced by their perfect discipline. Mr. Macfarlane was de- lighted to see the precision with wrhich these docile creatures executed their duties, without scarcely a command from their drivers. Marching into the yard in single file, they formed a crescent; and the first camel having knelt down to be relieved of his load, the rest patiently waited till it should come to the turn of each to be disburthened in a similar manner. The merchant with whom our friend re- sided, used to feel great delight in recognising the countenances of the camels; and he would readily point out. the individuals that he had noticed in pre- vious caravans. This was a task of some difficulty; for the appearances of camels vary much less than those of horses, both in colour and form. Their dtvidgis, or drivers, know them thoroughly, and have favourites that are more particularly the objects of their attention. One person has seldom the charge oi more than a dozen; and each camel has a parti- cular name, to which he readily pays attention. There is nothing remarkable in this; for even if one camel were perfectly like another in form and colour, with a creature so tractable, there would naturally be some expression of countenance which the driver would easily distinguish. Mr. Macfarlane says that he never could see any particular beauty in a camel, * P, 303. 4to# y3 246 THE MENAGERIES. as distinguishing; him much from his fellows, except ;now and then a clearer or a brighter hue, a smaller head, or more lively eye, but that the devidgis talk of their proportions as we do of those of horses. But although there may appear to a stranger a per- fect similarity between individual camels, they vaiy just as much in some minute circumstances as ail other animals. The Arabs of the desert readily track their wandering camels over plains covered with the feet-marks of other camels and men*, and the Bedouins have the same extraordinary ac- curacy of observation. "These Bedouins, being un- der no fear of robbers, leave their goods, and allow their beasts to pasture without any one to watch them. When they want the camels, they send to the springs in search of them; and if not found there, they trace their footsteps through the vallies, for every Bedouin knows the print of the foot of his own camelt." The Turks, who are idle and luxurious, and affect a contempt for the quiet virtues, call the Armenians, whom they despise as a patient and drudging race, camels. This is a compliment both to the poor ani- mals and to the Armenians, for the camels are the most amiable of creatures. Their good nature to other beasts, we are told, is remarkable. They will let the goats of the towns and villages share their meals, and almost take the provender from their mouths; the ass of the driver takes equal liber- ties, and dogs lie down to sleep with them with- out interruption. But the Turks take a sorry ad- vantage of those periodical fits of rage, which con- stitute the exception to the general character of this useful creature. At particular seasons of the year, camel-fights are common at Smyrna and at Aleppo. * Lyon's Northern Africa, p. 237. -}■ BurcUruirdi's Syria, p. 536. THE CAMEL, 247 Such exhibitions are the disgrace of the vulgar (be they the high or the low vulgar) of all countries; and the lion-fights of the savage Romans, the bull- fights of Spain, the bull and badger-baitings and cock-fights of England, and the camel-fights of Asia Minor, are equally indications of a barbarian spirit, which can only be eradicated by knowledge and true religion. Of these, however, the camel-fights appear the least objectionable. The camels of Smyrna are led out to a large plain, filled with eager crowds. They are muzzled to prevent their being seriously injured, for their bite is tremendous—always bringing the piece out. A couple being let loose, they run at each other with extreme fury. Mr. Macfarlane thus describes to us this curious scene:—" One of the favourite holyday amusements of the Turks of Asia Minor is furnished by the cam el-combats. An inclosure is made, and two camels, previously muzzled so that they cannot hurt each other much, are driven in, and incited to fight with each other. Their mode of combat is curious: they knock their heads tog-ether (laterally), twist their long necks, wrestle with their fore-legs, almost like bipeds, and seem to direct their principal attention to the throwing down of the adversary. During this combat, the Turks, deeply interested, will back, some one camel and some the other; and they will clap their hands and cry out the names of their respective favourites, just as our amateurs do with their dogs, or as the Spaniards, at their more splendid and more bloody bull-fights, will echo the name of the hardy bull or the gallant matador. The Pasha of Smyrna used frequently to regale the people with these spectacles «n an inclosed square before his palace; and I saw them besides, once, at a Turkish wedding at the tillage of Bournabah, near Smyrna, and another hroe, on some, other festive occasion, at Magnesia. 248 THE MENAGERIES. I once, however, chanced to see a less innocent con- test, which I have noticed in my volume of travels. This was on the plain between Mount Sipylus and Tartalee and the town of Smyrna. It was a fight in downright earnest. Two huge rivals broke away from the string, and set to in spite of their drivers. They bit each other furiously, and it was with great difficulty the devidgis succeeded in separating these (at other times) affectionate and docile animals." Cnmeh Jitjhting. The popular amusements which the camel affords in other parts of the East, are of a less ferocious nature. At a particular season of the year, the Mahomedans in the neighbourhood of Mount Sinai have camel racesy and this festival is a time of great rejoicing - We have noticed, in the preceding chapter, the terror which the horses of Pisa, that have been un- accustomed to the camel, feel at the unusual sight * Burckhardt's Syria, p. 490« THE CAMEL. 249 of this animal in the quiet performance of his labo- rious duties. This is not so at Smyrna, and other parts of Asia. The horse and the camel are there constantly seen, each occupied in its respective labours; and horses in many cases form part of caravans—the horse carrying; the traveller, and the camel his luggage. We apprehend that this indif- ference in the horses of the East to the presence of the camel is an effect of hereditary habit. They have been domesticated together for many centuries, while at Pisa the introduction of the camel is com- paratively of modern date. We are strengthened in this opinion by a curious passage in Herodotus, the Greek historian. He relates that when, under the walls of Sardis, Cyrus met the Lvdian army, com- manded by Croesus, in order of battle, fearing the cavalry of his enemy, he assembled all the camels which carried the baggage and provisions; and having taken off their loads, he put soldiers upon them, with orders thus to march against the cavalry of Croesus. Cyrus also ordered his infantry to follow the camels, and his cavalry to march in the rear of the infantry. He did this, says the historian, because the horse fears the camel, and cannot bear the sight or the smell of him. Croesus depended for success upon his cavalry, but the stratagem of Cyrus suc- ceeded; for when the horses had smelt and seen the camels, they became unruly and ran back*. It may be inferred, from this remarkable circumstance, that the horse and the camel had not become familiar in the time of Cyrus; and as we have sufficient testi- mony to the fact of a like terror of the horse in our own times, we may consider this peculiarity as one ot the many curious examples of the influence of domestication, in changing or modifying the natural instincts of every animal. * Clio, I, 250 THE MENAGERIES. The training of the camels to bear burthens, in the countries of the East, has not been minutely described by any traveller. We have seen how this education is carried on at Pisa. M. Brue, who, at the latter part of the seventeenth century, had the management of the affairs of a French commercial company at Senegal, says, "Soon after a camel is born, the Moors tie his feet under his belly, and, having thrown a large cloth over his back, put heavy stones at each corner of the cloth, which rests on the ground. They in this manner accustom him to receive the heaviest load.*." Both ancient and modern authors agree tolerably well in their accounts of the load which a camel can carry. Sandys, in his * Travels in the Holy Land,' says, "Six hundred weight is his ordi- nary load, yet will he carry a thousand." The cara- vans are distinguished as light or heavy', according to the load which the camels bear. The average load of the heavy, or slow-going camel, as stated by Major Rennell, who investigated their rate of travel- ling with great accuracy, is from 500 to 6001bs.f Burckhardt says, that his luggage and provisions weighing only 2 cwt., and his camel being capable of carrying 6 cwt., he sold him, contracting for the; transport of his luggage across the desert J. Mr. Buckingham saw camels carrying millstones to the large towns on the west of the Jordan, each of which was nearly six feet in diameter; and one being laid flat on the animal's back, in the very centre of the hump, and resting on the high part of the saddle, was secured by cords passing under his belly §. The camel sometimes carries large panniers, filled with heavy goods; sometimes bales are strapped on his back, fastened either with cordage made of the palm- * Prevost, Histoire Generate des Voyages, tome ii. f Philosophical Transactions, 1791. % Nubia, p. 166. § Arab Tribes, p. 166. THE CAMEL, 251 tree, or leathern thongs; and sometimes two, or more, will bear a sort of litter, in which women and children ride with considerable ease. The animal is so docile and steady—so regular in his movements and precise in his steps—and withal so capable of sustaining a very large and unwieldy burthen—that his driver seldom hesitates about the bulk, or the awkwardness in any other way, of what he places on his back. Captain Lyon, amongst the Arabs of Northern Africa, observed many of the children car- ried ia leather bags, which were ordinarily used to keep corn in; and in one instance he saw a nest of children on one side of a camel, and its young one in a bag-, hanging on the other. Major Denham, on his journey from Mourzuk to Kouka (in Northern Africa) saw a little camel suddenly brought into the world, which was instantly thrown across another camel, while the mother quietly followed after her offspring. In the Great Desert, Riley, who was a captive to the Arabs, used to assist the women and children to place themselves in baskets, which were made of camel's skin, and fixed in such a manner with a wooden rim around them, over which the skin was sewed, that three or four could sit in them with perfect safety and ease, only taking care to pre- serve their balance. But the patience of the camel, in bearing every sort of load, and his uncomplaining nature, when overburthened, sometimes lead to op- pression. He is occasionally too heavily weighted; and though there prevails an opinion that he will not rise with too great a load, he often sinks under his burthen, and expires. Mr. Parsons, who was consul at Scanderoon, and travelled over the Little Desert from Aleppo to Bag- dad, repeatedly saw camels drop through overloading. Relief is generally attempted when it is too late. He Says, in his journal, "The loading was taken off from 252 THE MENAGERIES. the four that fell down; and, although they made many efforts, as they had not strength to rise again, they were left. It is surprising to observe how docile these poor animals are, and how freely they travel whilst they have strength to do so, without beating, for that would not answer any purpose: they will continue their pace until they either drop dead on the spot, or are so much exhausted that it is very rare that any one recovers again after falling*" Burckhardt, on his journey of twenty-two days from Daraou to Berber, mentions another instance of cruelty in the camel-drivers: "The greater part of the camels had their backs horribly wounded, in conse- quence of the pressure of the loads, and of the ava- rice and negligence of the owners, who, in order to save a few piastres for a good and well-stuffed saddle, exposed the poor beasts to the greatest sufferings." This is brutal; but it is the brutality of an untaught and half-civilized being. There are, in our own country, many examples of as great cruelty; and we cannot look with contempt upon the camel-driver of Asia, without feeling that the English horse is sometimes equally maltreated, and that his tyrants ought also to be the subjects of unmixed reprobation. Like the horses of our own country, too, the camel occasionally suffers from the ignorance of those who pretend to administer relief to his ailments. Bishop Heber, in his journey to Cawnpoor, in the East Indies, says, " In the course of this evening my atten- tion was attracted by the dreadful groans of one of our baggage-camels, at some little distance among the trees. I went to the spot, and found that two of the * sarbauns/ or camel-drivers, had bound its legs in a kneeling posture, so that it could not rise or stir, and were now busy in burning it with hot * Travels in Asia and Africa, 1808; p. 108. THE CAMEL. 253 irons, in all the fleshy, muscular, and cartilaginous pa»*ts of its body. They had burned six deep notches in the back of its neck, had seared both its cheeks immediately under the eye, its haunches and head, and were now applying the torturing- instrument to its forehead and nostrils. I asked what they were doing? and they answered that it had a fever and '.vind, and would die if they did not treat it in this manner." The animal did die in a few hours. This was not intended as cruelty, for the Indians, doubt- less, firmly believed in the efficacy of their torture. Amongst many rude nations, particularly those of Africa, the excitement produced by burning muscular and iieshy parts of the body is the general remedy for every disease of the human frame;—and as the people sometimes get well, in spite of the re- medy, the credit of the art is never impeached by the suiferings of its victims. Quackery is everywhere the same, endeavouring to make particular remedies of universal application; and therefore necessarily committing an infinity of mistakes of the most serious consequence. Avarice and ill temper will occasionally make the Arabs and Turks maltreat their camels; though it is due to them to state that these instances are rare. The animal is usually treated with the care and kindness which his usefulness and his goodness demand. Mr. ; Mac Farlane says, " I have been told that the Arabs will kiss their camels in gratitude and allection, after a journey across the deserts. T never saw the Turks, cither of Asia Minor or Roumelia, carry their kind- ness so far as this; but I have frequently seen them pat their camels when the day's work was done, and talk to them on their journey, as if to cheer them. l'he camels appeared to me quite as sensible to favour and gentle treatment, as a good bred horse is. I have seen them curve and twist their long lithe necks as 254 THE MENAGERIES. their driver approached, and often put down their tranquil heads towards his shoulder." Again, he says," Near Smyrna, and at Magnesia and Sardes, I have occasionally seen a camel (a spe- cial favourite) follow his master like a pet dog, and go down on his knees before him, as if inviting him to mount. I never saw a Turk ill use the useful, gentle, amiable quadruped. But I have frequently seen him give it a portion of his own dinner, when, in unfavourable places, it had nothing but chopped straw to eat. I have sometimes seen the devidjis, on a hot day, or in passing a dry district, spirt a little water in the camels' nostrils ; they pretend it refreshes them." As we have mentioned, in the previous chapter, the Asiatics and Africans distinguish as dromedaries those camels which are used for riding. There is no essential difference in the species, but only in the breed. The camel of the heavy caravan, the bag- gage camel, may be compared to the dray-horse; the dromedary to the hunter, and, in some instances, to the race-horse. It is to be regretted that natural- ists have called the camel with one hump, the dro- medary, for this appellation produces a confusion in reading those travels which, very properly, use the name dromedary as applied by the natives to a swift or riding camel. Burckhardt, before his expedition into Nubia, bought two dromedaries, one of which he rode ten hours a day for thirty-five days. The speed of some of these animals is very great, com- pared with the slow march of the caravan. Messen- gers on dromedaries, accoiug to Burckhardt, have gone from Darou to Berber in eight days, while he was twenty-two days with the caravan on the same journey. Dromedaries of the Bisharye race, which are exported from the Nile countries to Djidda, are the finest in existence*. Purchas, who, two centuries * Burckhardt. THE CAMEL, 255 ago collected the most interesting accounts of Euro- pean travellers, in a voluminous work which he called his "Pilgrimage," thus describes the camels of Africa. "Of camels they have three sorts: the first called Huguin, of huge stature and strength, able to carry a thousand pounds weight; the second less, with two bunches on the back, fit for carriage and to ride on, called Becheti, of which they have only in Asia. The third sort, called Ragualiel, is meagre and small, able to travel (for they are not used to burthens) above an hundred miles in a day. And the king of Tombu- too can send messengers on such camels to Segel- messe or Darha, nine hundred miles distant, in seven or eight days, without stay or change by the way *." This is a statement which we might conceive to be exaggerated, if we were to assume the speed and endurance of the horse as points of comparison. But the creatures are essentially different; and the rela- tion of the old geographer is borne out by unim- peachable testimony. The Ragualiel of Purchas is the Heirie, or Maherry, of the Desert. Its swiftness is thus described in the figurative language of the Arabs: *' When thou shalt meet a heirie, and say to the rider, Salem Alick, ere he shall have answered thee, Alick Salem, he will be afar off, and nearly out of sight, for his swiftness is like the wind." Mr. Jackson, in his account of the Empire of Marocco, states that the fastest breed of the swift dromedary, which is called a " Sabayee," will perform a journey of thirty-five days' caravan travelling, in five days. The mean daily rate of the heavy caravan, according . to Rennell, is about eighteen miles; and thus it ap- pears, from Mr. Jackson's statement, that the heirie nill perform six hundred and thirty miles in five days —an almost incredible effort of speed and perse- verance. Captain Lyon says that the maherry, of the Northern African Arabs, will continue at a long trot * Purchas his Pilgrimage, vol. i., book 6, chap. 1. z 2 256 THE MENAGERIES. of nine miles an hour, for many hours together. Riley often travelled at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour, for nine and ten hours a day. He and his companions were mounted upon the drome- daries, without a saddle, and they were half naked. Their sufferings were great.; for the creatures, he says, "took very long steps, and their motions being heavy, our legs, unsupported by stirrups or anything else, would fly backwards and forwards, chafing* across their hard ribs at every step." These dromedaries travelled in companies, and, therefore, their speed was naturally not so great as that of a single one with a courier. Mr. Jackson tells a romantic story of a swift dromedary, whose natural pace was accelerated in an extraordinary manner by the enthusiasm of his rider: "Talking with an Arab ofSuse, on the subject of these fleet camels, and the desert horse, he assured me that he knew a young man who was passionately fond of a lovely girl, whom nothing would satisfy but some oranges: these were not to be procured at Mogadore, and, as the lady wanted the best fruit, nothing less than the Marocco oranges would satisfy her. The Arab mounted his heirie at dawn of day, went to Marocco (about one hundred miles from Mogadore), pur- chased the oranges, and returned that night after the gates were shut, but sent the oranges to the lady by a guard of one of the batteries." His excited feelings carried forward the Arab lover; and the length of an African day favoured his enterprise. He did not suffer like poor Riley, who, when his naked legs were chafing the camel's ribs for many hours, says, with real pathos, "it seemed to me as though the sun would never go down." The ugly and swift camel, Alboufaki, is a conspicuous figure in the singular romance of Vathek. The wandering Arab and his maherry, have an extraordinary ap- nearance, which Captain Lyon has described: "It16 THE CAMEL. Z57 The sunjt Dromedary. saddle is placed on the withers, and confined by a baud under the belly. It is very small and difficult to sit, which is done by balancing with the feet against the neck of the animal, and holding a tight rein to steady the hand." The first experiment which an European makes in bestriding a dromedary is generally a service of some little danger, from the peculiarity of the animal's movement in rising. Denon has described this with his usual vivacity. During the French invasion of Egypt, a part of Dessaix's division, to which the scientific traveller was attached, was sent with camels to a distant post across the desert. "The boute-selle (the mounting at a signal) was very amusing. The camel, slow as he generally is in his actions, lifts up his hind legs very briskly at the instant his rider is in the saddle ; the man is thus thrown forward: a similar movement of the fore-legs throws him backward. z3 258 THE MENAGERIES. Each motion is repeated; and it. is not till the fourth movement, when the camel is fairly on his feet, that the. rider can recover his balance. None of us could resist the first impulse; and thus nobody could laugh at his companions*." Mr. Mac Farlane tells us, in Sis letter, that upon his first camel adventure, he was so unprepared for the probable effect of the creature's rising behind, that he was thrown over his head, to the infinite amusement of the Turks, who were laughing at his inexperience. His description of this experiment is as lively as that of Den on :—" I was acquainted with this peculiarity of animal movement in a striking manner, the first time I mounted a camel out of curiosity. I ought to have known better—and, indeed, did know better; but when he was about to rise, from old habits associated with the horse, I ex- pected he would throw out his fore-legs, and I threw myself forward accordingly—when up sprung,- his hind-legs, and clean I went over his ears, to the great amusement of the devidjis." Riley tells a somewhat similar story of the effect of the rough movement of a large camel:—" They placed me on the largest camel I had yet seen, which was nine or ten feet in height. The camels were now all kneeling or lying down, and mine among the rest. I thought I had taken a good hold, to steady myself while he was rising; yet his motion was so heavy, and my strength so far exhausted, that I could not possibly hold on, and tumbled off over his tail, turn- ing entirely over. I came down upon my feet, which prevented my receiving any material injury, though the shock to my frame was very severe. The owner of the camel helped me up, and asked me if I was injured: I told him, no. 'God be praised!' said he> * for turning you over; had you fallen upon your head, these stones must have dashed out your brains. * Denon, Voyage, tow. ii. p. 221. Paris, 1802. THE CAMEL. 25 9 But the camel/ added he, * is a sacred animal, and Heaven protects those who ride on him! Had you fallen from an ass, though, he is only two cubits and a half high, it would have killed you; for the ass is not so noble a creature as the camel and the horse.' I afterwards found this to be the prevailing opinion among all classes of the Moors and the Arabs. When they put me on again, two of the men steadied me by the legs, until the camel was fairly up, and then told me to be careful, and to hold on fast; they also took great care to assist my companions in the same way*." Every preparation for a long journey being com- pleted,—the dromedaries and horses having their riders on their backs, and the camels having received their bales of goods and their water-skins,—the cara- van sets forward on its march. In Asia, an ass, bear- ing a tinkling bell, usually walks at the head, and the camels follow, one by one. Mr. Mac Farlane thus describes this arrangement, as well as their measured pace:—" The caravans, or strings of camels, are always headed by a little ass, on which the driver sometimes rides. The ass has a tinkling bell round his neck; and each camel is com?nonly furnished with a large rude bell, that produces, however, a soft and pastoral sound, suspended, not to the neck, but to the front of the pack, or saddle. As I have ob- served of the mules of Spain and Italy, they will all come to a dead stop, if these bells be removed by accident or design; and like the mules also, they always go best in a long single line, one after the other. We tried the experiment of the bell at Per- gamos. Two stately camels, the foremost furnished with the bell, were trudging along the road with measured steps: we detached the bell with a long stick; they halted as the sounds ceased, nor could we urge them forward until their ears were cheered * Riley's Shipwreck and Captivity, p. 289, 4to. 260 THE MENAGERIES. with the wonted music. I have used the word mea- sured, not as matter of poetry, but of fact. Their step is so measured and like clock-work, that on a plain you know almost to a yard the distance they will go in a given time. In the fiat vallies of the Hermus and Caicus, I have made calculations with a watch in my hand, and have found, hour after hour, an unvarying result, the end of their journey being- just at the same pace as the beginning: their pace is three miles an hour." He adds: "I may remark as curious, that the devidjis always preserve the same order of distribution, or, as we might say, in military language, ' dress the line,' in the same manner. Thus one camel always goes first, another second, another third, and so on; and if this order is interfered with, the beasts will become disorderly, and will not march. Each gets attached to a particular camel of the cara- van; prefers seeing his tail before him to that of any other; and will not go if you displace his friend." "We met caravans of camels," says Dr. Clarke, speaking of Cyprus, "marching according to the order always observed in the East; that is to say, in a line, one after the other; the whole caravan being preceded by an ass, with a bell about his neck*." Burckhardt gives the reason for the camels thus tra- velling in a single file :<—" The Souakin caravans, like those of the Hedjaz, are accustomed to travel in one long file: the Egyptians, on the contrary, march with a wide extended front; but the former method is preferable, because if any of the loads get out ol order they can be adjusted by leading the camel out of the line, before those behind have come up; in the latter case, the whole caravan must stop when any accident happens to a single camel. The caravans from Bagdad to Aleppo and Damascus, consisting' sometimes of two thousand camels, marching abreast of each other, extend over a space of more than a * Travels, vol. iv. p. 74, 8vo. THE CAMEL. 261 mile." The individual camels, which march in line, invariably follow the steps of the one which precedes them; and thus they are often led wrong, if the dmers are negligent. They are sometimes tied, the one to the tail of the other, like strings of horses in England. Burckhardt, in his journey from Mecca to Medina*, says, "the Arab riding foremost was to lead the troop; but he frequently fell asleep, as well as his companions behind, and his camel then took his own course, and often led the whole caravan astray." In the deserts, it requires especial vigi- lance and extraordinary local knowledge in the dri- vers, to keep the right direction. The compass is sometimes used; but, generally, the camel-drivers ascertain their course by some marks known only to themselves,—some sand-bank, or prickly shrubs, which only their experienced eye can distinguish from similar objects. "Every spot in the plains of Arabia is known by a particular name ; and it requires the eyes and experience of a Bedouin to distinguish one small district from another. For this purpose, the different species of shrubs and pasturage pro- duced in them by the rains are of great assistance; and whenever they wish to mention a certain spot to their companions, which happens to have no name, they always designate it by the herbs that grow theret" The camels of the caravan are wholly dependent upon those which precede them for the regularity of their pace, or for their haltings; and they therefore are completely under the direction of the leader, whether the man or the beast, assume that office. Even a rider can never stop his dromedary, while its companions are moving on; and thus it is a point of excellence in a traveller, with which the Arabs are highly pleased, to jump off and remount without stopping his beast J. The leading came], * Travels in Arabia, 1829. f Burckhardt's Arabia, J Burckhardt's Syria. 262 THE MENAGERIES. however, requires to be excited by its rider; and if it is not urged on by hearing the human voice, it gradually slackens its pace, and at last stands still to rest. If the leading camel once stops, all the rest do the same. Burckhardt, in his journey through Arabia, often walked a-head of the cara- van: he sometimes had to wait a long time for its coming up, and having retraced his steps, would find the camels standing still, and every soul upon them fast asleep. It is indifferent to these poor creatures where they stop; for they are regard- less of shade, and will remain quietly exposed to the hottest beams of the sun*. As long as the voice of the driver is heard, the camel does not heed \ahat situation he is in. Captain Lyon saw a blind camel- driver, who held by the animal's tail, and was in the habit, with this assistance, of going constantly over an uneven and dangerously steep track. Whatever be the nature of the road they toil over, they plod steadily on. Burckhardt says, "it is an erroneous opinion that the camel delights in sandy ground; it is true that he crosses with less difficulty than any other animal; but, wherever the sands are deep, the weight of himself and his load makes his feet sink into the sand at every step, and he groans and often sinks under his burden. It is the hard, gravelly ground of the desert which is most agreeable to this animal." Major Denharn says, that in the stony de- sert "the sharp points bruise their feet, and they totter and fall under their heavy loads." This is an apparent and not a real contradiction, between these two excellent authorities. The foot of the camel is adapted to tread upon a smooth surface, whether that surface be hard or soft. This foot is divided into two toes, without being separated. It is partly like the hoof of a horse, and partly cloven; tor a horny sole spreads from the heel forward * Clarke, iv. 74. THE CAMEL. 263 under the foot, uniting the middle part, and leav- ing the toes free. This horny sole is part of an elastic substance, which, being bedded in two cavi- ties of the foot, yields to the pressure of the soil; whilst the toes spread upon touching the ground, in the same way that the rein-deer's foot extends, to present a large surface to the snow *. We thus see Inside of a Carriers Foot,—A. is the cushion upon which the animal treads, shewn as lifted out of its beds. that the camel, having a very large, spreading, and elastic foot, moves with ease over any smooth surface, and does not sink into the sands with his heavy lading and his own large body, in the same way that he would if his foot were small and hoofed, as that of the horse. From the opinion of our obliging cor- respondent, Mr. Mac Farlane, we should be led to conclude that loose stones are not such an annoyance to the camel as might at first be supposed. He says, u The foot, certainly formed by nature to tread a loose sandy soil, does not, however, appear to me to suffer from stony or hard roads. In Asia Minor there are mountains in every direction; the paths across them are hard, rough, and loose, as rocks and broken ^ones can make them; yet I have often seen camels treading them without any appearance of suffering, and though I have met them in my travels, hundreds ?;s See Preliminary Discourse. 264 TfHE MENAGERIES, in a day, I do not remember having ever seen c wounded hoof.'* The surface which the camel chiefly dislikes is mud; for in that he slips about: and thus he is, with the greatest difficulty, prevailed upon to cross a loose, muddy track, however narrow, though he will wade through a river without much entreaty. Mr. Mac Farlane assures us, that he has seen the devidjis spread the coverings of their tents and even their own garments over the obnoxious ground, that the camels might walk without fear. The camel will ascend and descend hills, if they are not too steep. In the Desert they sometimes meet with sand-banks, from twenty to sixty feet high, and almost perpendicular, which must be crossed. The camel, in such situations, constantly blunders and falls with his heavy load; and in descending, the Arabs hang with all their weight on the animal's tail, to steady him *. Thus his docility compensates, in some degree, for the difficulty which he occasion- ally finds in travelling; and it must be remembered* that sharp rocks and steep hills are the exceptions to the general character of the countries over which he travels, and for which his conformation is so ad- mirably adapted. Rivers also rarely occur; and yet the camel will readily cross them. Norden, a cele- brated Danish traveller in Egypt and Nubia, was struck with the mode in which loaded camels crossed the Nile. "A man swam before, holding in his mouth the bridle of the first camel; the second camel was fastened to the tail of the first, and the third to the tail of the second. Another man, sitting on a truss of straw, brought up the rear, and took care that the second and third camels should follow in a row." Captain Lyon heard from natives of Africa, that camels are conducted across the Niger by men who hold them by their long upper lips, and keep their heads above water: the forepart of that animal * Denham, p. 28. THE CAMEL. 265 being- the heaviest, another man sits behind the hump, in order to raise the fore and depress the hinder parts, while crossing. Major Den ham de- scribes a passage of the Shary, an African river, which was effected with considerable risk: "the stream was extremely rapid, and our horses and camels were carried away from the sides of the canoe to which they were lashed: we lost a camel by this passage; these animals have a great dislike to water, and, after swimming a stream, are often seized with illness, and are carried off in a few hours." Burckhardt, describing the passage of a river in Nubia, says, "an inflated goatskin was tied to the nock of each camel, to aid it in swimming; but we had great difficulty to get them into the water, the Egyptian camels not being accustomed to this mode ■of passing the river. My guide stripped, and laid hold of the tail of his camel with one hand, while he urged the beast forward with a stick which he carried in the other." Thus we see that, under dif- ferent circumstances, and in various countries, differ- ent methods are employed to convey the camel across streams upon which there are no rafts or boats;—- and that though the patient animal has an objection to the water, his docility triumphs over his instinct, and he yields to the will of his driver, sometimes even at the peril of his life. The halts of the caravan for the night are ex- ceedingly curious and picturesque. We shall avail ourselves of Mr. Mac Farlane's communications, be- fore we proceed to those of other observers:— "On their journeys, the devidjis always choose, •for halting places, spots that abound in bushes or 'brakes, where such are to be found; the camels are left at liberty to browse, and their drivers smoke their pipes or go to sleep. There is no danger of the camels escaping or wandering to any distance; they 2a 266 THE MENAGERIES. keep close, to the spot whei-e they are set at liberty, and can be rallied and formed in a line in a moment, I have more than once seen this clone, by the mere voice* When they rest for the night, they generally kneel down in a circle—it is rarely considered ne- cessary to tie one of their fore-legs at the bend of the knee. They always repose on their knees ; and a curious thing' in relation to their natural habits is, that I never saw one of them throw himself, even for a moment, on his side. During the night's rest the devidjis generally sleep in the midst of the circle formed by the recumbent camels; if it be a rainy winter night they will pitch a little tent, but (I speak of Asia Minor) in this genial climate they nearly always repose like their quiet beasts, a la belle etoile. I once invaded a primitive dormitory of this sort, in a curious manner. It was at Boudja, a vil- lage (a few miles from Smyrna) where many of the Franks have their country-houses. I was hurrying home on a very dark night—at the entrance of the village, and in the shadow of a garden wall, I stum- bled over something, which proved to be a young; camel, (they accompany their dams on their jounues almost as soon as they are born;) and going forward I stumbled again over a sack, and fell headlong through an opening of the c domestic circle* into the midst of it, and upon the sleeping devidjis. I sup- pose they were surprised at the intrusion, but both men and beasts were very civil—the latter, indeed, never moved, and seemed as passive as if I had been falling over roots of trees/' Camels are formed by nature to endure great variations of temperature. The winds of the desert are sometimes exceedingly keen; and even in Asia Minor, the winter cold is occasionally very severe. We add one more quotation from Mr. Mac Farlane's interesting letter:— THE CAMEL. 267 "The winter of 1827-8 was the coldest that had been known for many years in Asia Minor: yet, on the coldest days, when I, though a native of the north, have been shivering; and suffering", I have often seen the camels, at night-fall, bivouacking near Smyrna, on the banks of the Meles, (Homer's river— as insignificant as is, or was, Fleet-ditch in summer, but a broad, brawling stream in winter,) there to puss the inclement night in the open air. Their own instinct teaches them to contract their circle and kneel close together, and their masters merely cover their loins with a material as primitive as their modes of life and encamping. It is a coarse thick sort of cloth, always dyed red, made of camel's wool, mixed with sheep's wool and goat's hair." Halt of Camels—Denon. The chief repose of a caravan is in the evening- Camels on their march never feed at their ease in the day-time; and nature seems to require that they should have their principal meal, and a few hours rest, from a little before sunset to several hours before sunrise. The principal halts in Syria and Arabia are, therefore, for two hours at noon, when every one endeavours to sleep, and from an hour or so before the sun goes down till the morning twilight *. When the caravan is about to proceed over a sterile .* Burckhardt's Syria. 2 a2 268 THE MENAGERIES. district, the drivers, several days before they start, give the camels three times the usual quantity of dhourra (millet), which they force down their throats^ and the construction of the stomach enables the ani- mal to ruminate upon this during a very long march *. The expense of maintaining these valuable creatures is remarkably little: a cake of barley, a few dates, a handful of beans, will suffice, in addition to the hard and prickly shrubs which they find in every district but the very wildest of the desert. They are parti- cularly fond of those vegetable productions which other animals would never touch, such as plant? which are like spears and daggers, in comparison with the needles of the thistle, and which often pierce the incautious traveller's boot. He might wish such thorns eradicated from the earth, if he did not behold the camel contentedly browsing upon them ; for he thus learns that Providence has made nothing in vain. The sant-tree is amongst these substances, and in this the camel especially delights. These hard shrubs pro- bably contain large quantities of saline matter. In the Great Desert, Riley saw the camels crop off the thorn-bushes as thick as a man's finger. Their teeth are particularly adapted for such a diet. Differing1' from all other ruminating tribes, they have two strong cut- ting teeth in the upper jaw; and of the six grinding teeth, one on each side, in the same jaw, has a crooked form: their canine teeth, of which they have two in each jaw, are very strong; and in the lower jaw the two external cutting teeth have a pointed form* and the foremost of the grinders is also pointed and crooked. They are thus provided with a most for- midable apparatus for cutting and tearing the hardest vegetable substance. But the camel is, at the same time, organized so as to graze upon the finest herb- age, and browse upon the most delicate leaves; lor . * Burckhardl's Nubia. THE CAMEL. 269 his upper lip being divided, he is enabled to nip off the tender shoots, and turn them into his mouth with the greatest facility. Whether the sustenance, there- fore, which he finds be of the coarsest or the softest kind, he is equally prepared to be satisfied with, and to enjoy it. In the desert, from Aleppo to Bagdad, Mr. Parsons occasionally passed through little flowery vales, covered with the choicest clover, where the camels grazed; and in crossing some inconsiderable hills, which, though stony, were not bare of grass, besides producing rosemary, thyme, camphor, mar- joram, origanum, and southernwood, the camels seemed delighted to snatch a mouthful from these fragrant shrubs by way of variety, though the horses would not touch them. The young and fresh leaves of the acacia-trees are peculiarly grateful to them; and the Bedouins, spreading a straw mat under the tree, beat its boughs with long sticks, and sell these tender leaves for camels' food*. The Nubians were one year without any produce from their date-trees, because the Mamelukes, in a time of great scarcity, fed their camels upon palm-leaves. The camel is particularly fond of a plant, the silphium of antiquity, which was valued as a sovereign remedy for all com- plaints of the human body, from the time of Hero- dotus to that of Pliny. This plant produces very fatal effects upon all quadrupeds; but the camels greedily devour it, as did the sheep of old, according to the description of Arrian. The camel is therefore muzzled when he travels through the countries in which silphium abounds, the Cyrenaica; and lest the drivers should allow him to taste it, and he should thus be destroyed, an additional sum is charged for the hire of the animal through those districts, as a compensation for this chance of injuryf. The camel * Burckhardt's Arabia. f See Beechey's Northern Coast of Africa, p. 410, 2 A3 270 THE MENAGERIES. will, indeed, eat every vegetable substance; and it is affirmed that, in cases of need, he will even distend his stomach with coals. The African caravans carry coals through the desert; and Riley states, that in the absence of all other food, the camels received a supply of this singular food once a day. They are partly enabled to endure these extraordinary priva- tions by the absorption into their system of the fat of the hump*. The long establishment of commercial intercourse in Asia, by means of caravans, and the necessity of accommodating large bodies of Mahometan pilgrims from all parts of the East to Mecca, have caused the erection, from time to time, of large reservoirs of water, in almost every frequented road. In the vicinities of the towns, these reservoirs, which are called birkets, are usually supplied from aqueducts. At these convenient places, the caravans always halt. Camels JFatering—Dzwosi. The Bedouins, and other wandering tribes, some- times seize upon these wells, and extort a tribute for * See Dictionnaire Classique d'Histoire Naturelle; Art. Chameauj by M. A. Desmoulins. THE CAMEL. 271 the permission to draw water. As soon, however, as a caravan arrives upon the desert, the supply of water becomes a matter of chance. The accustomed foun- tains are often dried up; and the travellers have to journey forward, in the hopes of discovering- some other well, at which ihey may refresh their camels, and replenish their water-okins. In a journey with a caravan, it is essentially neces- sary to carry a considerable quantity of water. Some- times a portion of the camels bear nothing but water- skins; but oftener every camel carries one skin, in addition to his ordinary lading. "No idea can be formed by Europeans," says^Burckhardt, "of the quantity of water necessary for drinking, cooking, and washing, during a journey through these coun- tries; but more particularly to* allay the thirst of the traveller, whose palate is continually parched by the effects of the fiery ground and air—who has been confined, perhaps, tor several days to a short allow- ance of water, and who lives upon food which, con- sisting of farinaceous preparations and butter, is calculated to excite thirst in the highest degree. It is a general custom in the caravans in these parts (Nubia), as well as in the Arabian deserts, never to drink, except when the whole caravan halts for a few minutes for that purpose To drink while others do not, exposes a man to be considered effe- minate, and to the opprobrious saying, that 4 his mouth is tied to that of the water-skin/ ... . Travellers, in these journies, drink a great quantity of water when it is plentiful; I do not exaggerate when I say that I have often drunk in the afternoon, at one draught, as much as would fill two common water bottles The usual computation is, that a middling sized skin, or gerbe, holding about fifty or sixty pounds of water, will serve a man for three days*" Captain Lyon says, that when horses * Burckhardt's Nubia, p, 428. 272 THE MENAGERIES. travel with a caravan in Africa, it is necessary to provide a camel for each horse, for the sole purpose of carrying1 water. It would appear from these pas- sages, (and such is the fact) that of the water which the camels carry, no part is allowed to themselves. The men and horses have the advantage of their patient drudgery; and they are left, in almost every case, to the precarious supply which they may find at the fountains, which are so thinly scattered over the deserts. Upon the subject of the camel's power of abstinence from water, there have been many exaggerations, which Burckhardt ascribes to the cre- dulity of those travellers "who draw their informa- tion only from bragging Arabians or Moors." This power, however, is extraordinary enough to excite our wonder and admiration, without any assistance from fanciful descriptions. The camel often travels three or four days without water, drinking fifty, sixty, or even a hundred pounds weight, when he has an opportunity; and the best camels for transport will sometimes endure a thirst of ten or twelve days, though many of them perish under this privation. When we see what the man and the horse require in those arid countries, such a power in the camel must appear one of the most remarkable provisions ol nature. We may properly, at this point, consider the anato- mical construction of the earners stomach; for with- out a knowledge of this peculiar organ, the capacity of the animal for enduring hunger and thirst, especi- ally the latter, must appear little short of miraculous. When understood, this structure exhibits a mechanism so admirable, so curious, so perfect in all its parts, and withal so delicate, that we cannot hesitate at once to consider it as beautiful an evidence of Almighty wisdom, as any of the mechanical contrivances of the human body, such as the hand or the eye, with which we are more familiar. The notion of M. Buffon, that THE CAMEL. 273 the camel's reservoir for water has been produced by the effects of the animal's Jong servitude, could only have proceeded from a complete ignorance of the anatomical nature of the parts which he imperfectly described, with particular reference to a favourite theory. When he affirms that the callosities on the camel's knee are the hereditary effects of slavery, the assertion does not at once refute itself;—but when he asks us to believe that the domestication of a few thousand years has altered the internal organization of the animal—has created (for we must consider it a creation) new muscles which are moved by the will, and cells opening and shutting with valves of the most delicate construction—we might as readily think that the changes of matter had been produced by matter, instead of mind, in any of the results of human intellect—that bales of cotton had, in process of time, made the spinning-jenny—or, to come to a closer analogy, that the overflowings of the Thames had constructed the "New Cut" at Paddington. The water of our rivers could just as easily make the reservoirs and locks of a navigable canal, as the necessity for retaining the water of the desert could construct the cells and valves of the camel's addi- tional stomach. An opinion has been thrown out by Cuvier, that ihe stomach of the camel is so formed as not only to retain water, but to produce a liquid by secretion. He was led to this conclusion, by seeing the llama, which belongs to the camel family, reject water when He could obtain grass. The idea is as ingenious as it is bold; and if the theory were established, it would go still farther to explain the extraordinary powers of abstinence which the camel possesses. Some of the later French naturalists have given tolerably accurate descriptions of the camel's sto- mach; but we shall avail ourselves, in the following 2 74 THE MENAGERIES. account, of the materials afforded to us by our dis- tinguished countryman, Sir Everard Home, whose examination of this structure has been more careful and minute than that of any other comparative ana- tomist. A camel in a dying state having been purchased by the College of Surgeons, Sir Everard Home under- took to examine the construction of its stomach after death, and to report upon it. Mr. Hunter had a camel's stomach amongst his dried preparations, but it was impossible to ascertain the offices of the several cavities, from this imperfect mode of examination; and thus this celebrated anatomist 'doubted whether the second cavity, which contains the water-cells, differed in its uses from that of other ruminating animals, It was highly desirable to set this question at rest. The camel, therefore, which had been pur- chased by the College, and which gradually grew weaker, was at length killed, after being incited to drink three gallons of water, having taken none for three days previously. Its death was immediate, for it was pithed, or instantly deprived of sensibility, by passing a poinard between the skull and first verte- bra of the neck*. Its head was fixed to a beam to prevent the body falling to the ground after it was dead. The animal was kept suspended that the viscera might remain in their natural state, and in two hours the cavities of the chest and abdomen were laid open. The following is Sir E. Home's description of this animal's stomach, founded upon a most careful examination f:— <4 The camel's stomach, anteriorly, forms one large * t( In the common mode of pithing cattle, the medulla spinalis (spinal marrow) only is cut through, and the head remains alive, which renders it ihe most cruel mode of killing animals that could be devised."—Sir E. Home. -)• Comparative Anatomy, vol. i., p. 169. THE CAMEL. 275 bag, but. when laid open, this is found to be divided into two compartments, on its posterior part, by a strong" ridge, which passes down from the right side of the orifice of the oesophagus, in a longitudinal direction. This ridge forms one side of a groove that leads to the orifice of the second cavity, and is continued on beyond that part, becoming one boundary to the cellular structure met with in that situation. From this ridge, eight strong muscular bands go off at right angles, and afterwards form curved lines, till they are insensibly lost, in the coats of the stomach. These are at equal distances from each other, and, being intersected in a regular way by transverse muscular septa, form the cells. kt This cellular structure is in the left compart- ment of the first cavity, and there is another of a more superficial kind on the right, placed in exactly the opposite direction, made up of twenty-one rows of smaller cells, but entirely unconnected with the gTeat ridge. u On the left side of the termination of the oeso- phagus, a broad muscular band has its origin from the coats of the first cavity, and passes down in the form of a fold parallel to the great ridge, till it enters the orifice of the second, where it takes another direction. It is continued along the upper edge of Hiat cavity, and terminates within the orifice of a small bag, which may be termed the third cavity. "This band on one side, and the great rid