Buffon's Natural History. Volume 09 (of 10) / Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c

by comte de Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon

But of all animals the camel seems to have the greatest and deepest impressions of slavery made upon him. He comes into the world with prominences on his back, and callosities on the breast and knees; these callosities are formed by the continual friction on those parts, as is plain from their being filled with pus and corrupted blood. As he never travels without being heavily loaded, the pressure of the burden has prevented the free extension and uniform growth of the muscular parts of the back, and produced a swelling in the surrounding flesh; the camel likewise being constrained at first to rest or sleep in a kneeling posture, in time it becomes habitual; and from supporting the whole weight of his body, for several hours in the day, on his breast and knees, the skin of those parts is rubbed off by pressing against the earth, and by degrees they become hard and callous. The lama, which passes his life, like the camel, under the pressure of heavy burdens, and likewise rests on his breast and knees, has similar callosities, which are perpetuated by generation. The baboons and monkies, which, whether sleeping or waking, are generally in a sitting posture, have also callosities on their posteriors. This callous skin is even adherent to the bones, against which it is continually pressed by the weight of the body. But the callosities of the baboons and monkies are of a dry and healing nature, as they do not proceed from the oppression of any superabundant weight, but, on the contrary, are only the effects of natural habits, for these animals remain longer in a sitting than in any other posture. The callosities of the monkey are like the double skin on the sole of a man’s foot. This is a natural callosity, which our habit of walking or standing renders thicker and harder, according to the greater or lesser degree of friction we effect by exercise.

Wild animals not being immediately subject to the empire of man, are not liable to such great alterations as the domestic kinds. Their nature seems to vary according to different climates, though they are no where degraded. If they were at liberty to chuse their climate and food these alterations would be still less; but as they have at all times been hunted and exiled by man, or even by those quadrupeds which have greater strength, and are more ferocious, the greatest part of them have been obliged to quit their native country, and to live in climates less favourable to their constitutions. Those which had sufficient flexibility of nature to accommodate themselves to their new situation have dispersed to great distances, whereas others have no resource but to confine themselves within the neighbouring desarts of their native country. There is no species of animal, except man, universally spread over the face of the terrestrial globe. Some, and indeed great numbers, are confined to the southern parts of the Old Continent, and others to the southern parts of the new; while others, though fewer in number, are confined to the cold regions of the north; and, instead of extending themselves towards the south, they have passed from one continent to the other by roads which have hitherto remained unknown to us. There are other species which inhabit particular mountains or valleys, and the alterations of their nature are so much the less apparent the more they are confined to a small space.

Climate and food having little influence on wild animals, and the empire of man still less, their principal varieties proceed from another cause. They are relative to the combination of their number in individuals, as well in those which produce as in those which are produced. In those species, like that of the roe-buck, where the male attaches himself to one female, and never changes, the young ones demonstrate the fidelity of their parents by their entire resemblance to them. In those species, on the contrary, where the females often change the male, as in the stag, for instance, there are a number of varieties; and as there is not in nature a single individual which perfectly resembles another, the number of varieties in animals is in proportion to the greater or less frequency of their produce. In species where the female produces five or six young ones, three or four times a year, the number of varieties must necessarily be greater than in those where the produce is annual, and a single one. The inferior species, therefore, which produce oftener, and in greater numbers than the larger, are subject to more varieties. Size of body, which seems only to be a relative quality, nevertheless possesses positive attributes in the laws of Nature. The large species is as fixed as the small is changeable. We shall be convinced of this fact by enumerating the varieties which take place in the large and small animals.

In Guinea the wild boar has very long ears, turned backwards. In China he has a large pendant belly, and very short legs. At Cape Verd, and in other places, his tusks are very large and crooked like the horns of an ox. In a domestic state, and in cold and temperate climates, his ears are somewhat pendent, and his bristles are white. I do not place the peccari, nor the babiroussa, among the varieties of the wild boar, because neither belong to that species, although they approach very near to it.

We find that the stag, in dry, hot, and mountainous countries, such as Corsica and Sardinia, has lost above half his original size; his hair has become brown, and his horns blackish. In cold and wet countries, as in Bohemia, and at the Ardennes, his size is greatly increased, his coat and horns are become almost black, and his hair is so greatly lengthened as to form a kind of beard on his chin. In North America the horns of the stag are extended and branched by crooked antlers. In a domestic state his coat changes from a yellow to a white; and when not at perfect liberty, or in large parks, his legs are deformed and crooked. I do not reckon the axis among the varieties of the stag; it approaches nearer that of the fallow-deer, and is, perhaps, only a variety of it.

It would be a difficult point to determine the original species of the fallow-deer. It is not in any part of the globe entirely domestic, nor absolutely wild. It varies indifferently from a yellowish brown to a pied, and from a pied to a white. His horns and tail, in different races, are longer or shorter, and his flesh is good or bad, according to the soil and climate. Like the stag he is found in both continents, and he seems to be larger in Virginia, and the other temperate provinces of America, than in Europe. It is the same with the roe-buck; he is of a larger size in the New than in the Old Continent; but in other respects, his varieties are confined to some differences in the colour of the hair, which changes from a yellow to a deep brown. The smallest roe-bucks are generally of a fallow colour, and the largest brown. The roe-buck and fallow-deer, are the only animals common to both continents, and which are larger and stronger in the New than in the Old.

The ass has undergone but few changes, even though subjected to the most rigid servitude, for his nature is so stubborn, that it equally resists ill treatment, and the inconveniences of a foreign climate and coarse food. Though he is a native of hot countries, he can live and even multiply without any assistance from man in temperate climates. Formerly there were onagres, or wild asses, in the desarts of Asia Minor, but at present there are very few, and are only to be found in numbers in the desarts of Tartary. The Daurian mule, called czigithai by the Mongol Tartars, is, probably, the same animal as the onagre of the Asiatic provinces; as the former differs only from the latter by the length and colour of the hair, which, according to Mr. Bell, seems to be undulated with brown and white.[AG] These czigithais are found in the forests of Tartary, even to the 51st, and 52d degree of latitude. They must not be confounded with the zebra, whose colours are more bright, and quite otherwise disposed; besides the zebra forms a particular species, as different from that of the ass, as from the horse. The only remarkable degradation of the ass is that the skin, in a domestic state has become more pliant and lost those small tubercles which are found scattered over the onagre, and of which the people of the Levant make what is known here by the name of Shagreen.

[AG] Perhaps Mr. Bell, who says he only saw the skins of these animals, may have seen the skins of the zebra instead. For other travellers do not mention that the czigithais or onagres of Dauria are streaked with brown and white like the zebra; besides, there are in the cabinet at St. Petersburg, skins of the zebra and skins of the czigithais, both of which are shewn to travellers.

The hare is of a flexible, yet firm nature, for though dispersed over almost every climate of the Old Continent, yet it continues nearly the same, its skin only becoming rather whiter during the winter in very cold climates, but it resumes its natural colour in summer, which only varies from a fallow to a reddish hue. The qualities of the flesh vary also, for the red hares are always the best eating. But the rabbit, though not of so flexible a nature as the hare, being less diffused, and seemingly confined to particular countries, is, nevertheless, subject to more variations; because the hare is in every part of the world wild, whereas the rabbit is almost every where half domesticated. The wild rabbits have varied in their colours, from fallow to white or black; they have also varied in size, and in the quantity and quality of their fur. This animal, which is originally a native of Spain, has acquired a long tail in Tartary, and a thick bushy coat in Syria. Black hares are often found in cold countries. It is asserted also that in Norway, and some other northern regions, there are hares with horns. Klein has given figures of two of these horned hares. It is easily seen, from an inspection of these figures, that the horns resemble those of the roe-buck. This variety, if it exists, is only individual, and probably appears in those places alone where the hare cannot meet with grass, and is obliged to feed on the bark, buds, and leaves of trees.

The elk, whose species is confined to the northern part of the two continents, is only less in America than in Europe, and we see by the enormous horns found under the ground in Canada, Russia, Siberia, &c. that these animals were formerly much larger than they are at present. This difference of size proceeded perhaps from the perfect tranquillity which they enjoyed in the forests; and, not being disturbed by the human species, which had not at that time penetrated into those climates, they were at liberty to chuse their residence in those spots where the air, soil, and water agreed best with their constitutions. The rein-deer, which the Laplanders have rendered domestic, is, on this account, more changed than the elk, which has not yet been reduced to slavery. The wild rein-deer are larger, stronger, and their hair is blacker than the domestic kind: the last have varied in the colour of their hair, and also in the size of their horns. The lichen, or the rein-deer liverwort, constitutes the principal food of these animals, and seems, by its quality, to contribute greatly to the nutritive growth of the horns, which are proportionally larger in the rein-deer than in any other species; and it is, perhaps, this same nutriment which in this climate produces horns on the head of the hare, in the same manner as it does upon that of the female rein-deer; for in every other climate, there are no horned hares, nor any female animal that is furnished with horns like the male.