MAN, while yet savage himself, was but ill-qualified to civilize the forest. While yet naked, unarmed, and without shelter, every beast was a formidable rival; and the destruction of such was the first employment of heroes. But when he began to multiply, and arts to accumulate, he soon cleared the plains of the most noxious of these rivals; some were taken under his protection and care, while the rest fled to the desert or the wood. Many of the quadrupeds are now the assistants of man; upon them he devolves the most laborious employments, and finds in them patient and humble co-adjutors, ready to obey, and content with the food and care bestowed upon them. It was not, however, without long and repeated efforts that the independent spirit of these animals was broken; for the savage freedom in wild animals, is generally found to pass down through several generations before it is totally subdued. Those cats and dogs that are taken from a state of natural wildness in the forest, still transmit their fierceness to their young; and however concealed in general, it breaks out on certain occasions. Amongst the variety of animals which have been provided by the bountiful hand of Nature to supply the wants of man, there are none, perhaps, on which the necessaries of life so much depend as on those of the Ox kind. From them we are supplied with milk, butter, cheese, flesh, tallow, hides, and a variety of other articles too numerous to be detailed.

The Horse and Ass have, from the earliest periods, been domesticated by man; they serve the important purposes of carriage and draught during life, and after death afford their skin, hair, hoofs, and bones as articles of commerce. In Arabia horses are found in the highest perfection, as it were to compensate for the attention and kindness with which they are there treated. To the Arab, his horse is as dear as his children, with them it shares his tent and is equally the object of his solicitude. During the day the horses are usually saddled, and at the tent-door; but at night they rest under the same covering, and amidst the family of their master; they are never beaten or spurred, and are directed in their course merely by a slight switch.

Our Domestic Ass has a dull heavy look, his head stooping, his ears slouching, his mane short, the body covered with rough, ash-coloured hair, the tail naked, and furnished with a tuft only at its tip. Despised and abused, as he is too frequently in this country, the Ass has a very different appearance wherever he is well-groomed and looked after; in proof of which many examples might be given. The ass is patient under ill-usage, and persevering in labour; indifferent with respect to food, being contented with a thistle, or any other vegetable, but rather preferring the plantain, for which it has been observed to neglect every other herb in the pasture.

The sheep are among the most useful of animals. Whilst in a state of nature they are very strong and active, they leap and run with great agility, and have not the silly character they appear to bear in a state of domestication. The people of the various parts of the earth in which sheep are found derive many of the necessaries of life from them. Besides affording their flesh for food, and their fat for tallow, the wool, in more civilized countries, is manufactured into cloth, whilst the ruder northern Asiatics wrap themselves up in skins with the wool remaining on them. After the hide is dressed it is made into leather, and by a different process into parchment.

A natural share of courage, an angry and a ferocious disposition, render the Dog, in its savage state, a formidable enemy to all other animals; but these dispositions readily give way to very different qualities in the domestic dog, whose only ambition seems the desire to please his master, at whose feet he lays his force, his courage, and all his useful talents. More docile than man, more obedient than any other animal, he is not only instructed in a short time, but he also conforms to the dispositions, and the manners of those who command him. He guards his owner’s property and defends his person, he attacks thieves, watches the flocks, hunts game, draws sledges, and exterminates wolves.

The Cat must be considered as a faithless friend, brought to oppose a still more insidious enemy. The domestic cat is the only animal of the tribe to which it belongs, whose services can more than recompense the trouble of its education, and whose strength is not sufficient to make its anger formidable. Supple, insinuating, and artful, it has the art of concealing its intentions till it can put them into execution. Whatever animal is much weaker than itself is an indiscriminate object of slaughter, - birds, bats, moles, young rabbits, rats, and mice, - the last named being its favourite game.

The Pig, though repulsive from its habit of wallowing in dirt and filth of all kinds, from its morose, and often ferocious temper, and from its unsightly form and gait, is, nevertheless, a most important servant in the general economy of nature, devouring the refuse which other animals will not touch. The Goat is distinguished from the sheep by its vivacity and courage, by its horns not being twisted, and by its having a long beard. Another distinction is the very offensive smell which the Goat emits, and which does not belong to the Sheep. It is a very useful animal, supplying food and raiment in no inconsiderable degree.

These are the domestic animals best known in Europe; we shall speak of the elephant, the camel, and others in future pages. M. Geoffrey St. Hilaire, in his memoir upon a menagerie for the acclimation of useful animals, speaks of the Eland, the Peruvian Sheep, the Tapir, the Llama, the Alpaca, and others which might be domesticated with advantage. The Eland is one of the largest antelopes of South Africa. It has been acclimatized under the care of the Zoological Society, in Regent’s Park. Several herds belonging to private individuals are now increasing so as to afford the prospect of a large supply of succulent and wholesome meat at no distant day, while the living animals will form a permanent attraction in our homesteads and meadow scenery.

IT has been well observed, that there are few things in which the public have so great and general an interest, and concerning which they possess so little real knowledge, as of the traffic in animals, live and dead, in their own country. They know even less of the various kinds of flesh which are held in estimation in distant countries. The average quantity of animal food of all kinds consumed in France is stated on good authority- that of M. Payen - to be as low as one-sixth of a pound per diem to each person. Even in the cities and large towns, especially Paris, the amount of food upon which a Frenchman lives is astonishingly small. An Englishman or an American would starve upon such fare. In proportion to its population, New York consumes as nearly as possible the same quantity of meat as London, about half-a-pound a day to each person; more beef, however, is consumed there and less mutton, and the latter fact may be accounted for by the comparative inferiority of quality.

African epicures esteem as one of their greatest delicacies. a tender young Monkey, highly seasoned and spiced, and baked in a jar set in the earth, with a fire over it, in gipsy fashion. Monkeys are commonly sold with parrots and the paca, in the markets at Rio Janeiro. Several species of monkey are used as food by the aboriginal inhabitants of the Malayan peninsula. As all kinds of Monkeys are very destructive to his rice-fields, the Dyak of Borneo is equally their enemy; and, as this people esteem their flesh as an article of food, no opportunity of destroying them is lost.

The Dutch, when in the island of Mauritius, are said to have been fond of the flesh of Bats, preferring it to the finest game. The Indians of Malabar and other parts of the East Indies, are also said to eat the flesh of bats.

The natives of the Malay Peninsula eat the flesh of the Tiger, believing it to be a sovereign specific for all diseases, besides imparting to him who partakes of it the courage and sagacity of that animal. Some people have ventured to eat the American Panther, and say it is very delicate food; and the flesh of the Wild Cat of Louisiana is said to be good to eat. Mr. Wallace, when travelling up the Amazon, writes - ‘Several Jaguars were killed, one day we had some steaks at table, and found the meat very white, and without any bad taste.’ It appears evident that the common idea of the food of an animal determining the quality of its meat, is erroneous. Domestic poultry and pigs are the most unclean animals in their food, yet their flesh is highly esteemed, while rats and squirrels, which eat only vegetable food, are in general disrepute.

In China, the Dog is fattened for the table, and the flesh of dogs is as much liked by the Chinese as mutton is by us. At Canton, the hind quarters of dogs are seen hanging up in the most prominent parts of the shops exposed for sale. They are considered by the people as. a most dainty food, and are consumed by both rich and poor.

The Kangaroo is par excellence the wild game of Australia, and coursing it gives active employment to its pursuers. The flesh of all the several species is good. The parts of the Kangaroo most esteemed for eating are the loins and the tail, which abound in gelatine, and furnish an excellent and nourishing soup; the hind legs are coarse, and usually fall to the share of the dogs. The natives (if they can be said to have a choice) give a preference to the head. The flesh of the full-grown animal may be compared to lean beef, and that of the young to veal; they are destitute of fat, if we except a little being occasionally seen between the muscles and integuments of the tail. The Wombat, a bear-like marsupial quadruped of Australia, is eaten in New South Wales, and other parts of the Australian Continent. In size it often equals a sheep, some of the largest weighing 140 lbs.; and the flesh is said by some to be not unlike venison, and by others to resemble lean mutton.

Passing now to the rodents or gnawing animals, we find that the large grey Squirrel is very good eating. The flesh of the squirrel is much valued by the Dyaks, and it will, doubtless, hereafter be prized for the table of Europeans. The Marmot in its fat state, when it first retires to its winter quarters, is in very good condition, and is then killed and eaten in great numbers, although we may affect to despise it. The Mouse, to the Esquimaux epicures, is a real bonne bouche, and if they can catch half-a-dozen at a time, they run a piece of a twig through them, in the same manner as the London poulterers prepare larks for the table; and without stopping to skin them, or divest them of their entrails, broil them over the fire; and although some of the mice may have belonged to the aborigines of the race, yet so strong is the mastication of the natives, that the bones of the animal yield to its power as easily as the bones of a rabbit would to a shark. The flesh of the Beaver is looked upon as very delicate food by the North American hunters, but the tail is the choicest dainty, and in great request. It is much prized by the Indians and trappers, especially when it is roasted in the skin, after the hair has been singed off.

Among the Pachydermata, we find that the Elephant is eaten both in Africa and in India; the following account is given by Gordon Cumming of the process of cutting up this huge animal. ‘The rough outer skin is first removed, in large sheets, from the side which lies uppermost. Several coats of an under skin are then met with. They remove this inner skin with caution, taking care not to cut it with the assagai (kind of javelin used by the Kaffirs). The flesh is then removed in enormous sheets from the ribs, when the hatchets come into play, with which they chop through, and remove individually, each colossal rib. The bowels are thus laid bare; and in the removal of these the leading men take a lively interest, for it is throughout and around the bowels that the fat of the elephant is mainly found. The quantity of fat which is obtained from a full-grown bull, in high condition, is very great. Before it can be obtained, the greater part of the bowels must be removed. To accomplish this, several men eventually enter the immense cavity of his inside, where they continue mining away with their assagais, and handing the fat to their comrades outside, till all is bare. While this is transpiring with the sides and bowels other parties are equally active in removing the skin and flesh from the remaining parts of the carcase. Fat of any kind is a complete god-send to the Bechuana and other tribes of Southern Africa; and the slaughter of an elephant affords them a rich harvest.

In all the large rivers of Southern Africa, and especially towards the mouths, the hippopotami abound. The colonists give them the name of sea-cows. The capture of one of these huge beasts, weighing, as they sometimes do, as much as four or five large oxen, is an immense prize to the hungry Bushman, as the flesh is by no means unpalatable; and the fat, with which these animals are always covered, is considered delicious. When salted it is very much like excellent fat bacon, and is greatly prized by the Dutch colonists, not only for the table, bat for the reputed medicinal qualities which are attributed to it. In Abyssinia, hippopotami meat is commonly eaten.

In the Western States pork is the great idea, and the largest owner of pigs is the hero of the prairie. The Louisville Courier stated recently, that there were five or six acres of barrelled pork piled up three tiers high, in open lots, and not less than six acres more not packed, which would make eighteen acres of barrels if laid side by side, exclusive of lard in barrels, and pork bulked down in the curing houses, sheds, &c. Besides the above slaughtered hogs, there were five or six acres more of live hogs in pens, waiting their destiny. What coal has been to England, wheat to the Nile or the Danube, coffee to Ceylon, gold to California and Victoria, and sheep to the Cape and Australia, pork has been to the West in America.

Banquets of horse-flesh are at present the rage in Paris, Toulouse, and Berlin. The veterinary schools there pronounce horse-bone soup preferable beyond measure to the old-fashioned beef-bone liquid, and much more economical.

The Ruminants furnish, as is well known, the largest portion of our animal food, being consumed by man alike in civilized or unsettled countries. The domestic animals require little notice. There are, however, some whose flesh is eaten in different countries that are less familiar. Thus the bison and musk-ox of North America; the reindeer of Greenland and Northern Europe; the various antelopes, especially the eland, the gnu, the giraffe, and the camel of Africa; and the alpaca tribe of South America, supply much of the animal food of the people in the districts where they are common. The flesh of the great moose deer, or elk, of North America, the carcase of which weighs 1,000 lbs., is as valuable for food as beef, but from its immense size, much of the flesh is usually left in the forest. It is more relished by the Indians and persons resident in the fur countries, than that of any other animal, and bears a greater resemblance in its flavour to beef than to venison. It is said that the external fat is soft like that of a breast of mutton, and when put into a bladder is as fine as marrow. Bison beef, especially that of the female, is rather coarser grained than that of the domestic ox, but is considered by hunters and travellers as superior in tenderness and flavour. The hump, which is highly celebrated for its richness and delicacy, is said, when properly cooked, to resemble marrow.

Cetacea. The flesh of the manatus is white and delicate, and tastes like young pork eaten fresh or salted, white the fat forms excellent lard. The cured flesh keeps long without corruption, and it will continue good several weeks, even in the hot climate of which it is a native, when other meat would not resist putrefaction for as many days. The fibres and the lean part of the flesh are like beef, but more red; it takes a very long time boiling. The fat of the young one is like pork, and can scarcely be distinguished from it, while the lean eats like veal. The fat, which lies between the entrails and skin has a pleasant smell, and tastes like the oil of sweet almonds. It makes an admirable substitute for batter, and does not turn rancid in the sun. The fat of the tail is of a firmer consistence, and when boiled is more delicate than the other fat.

Walrus meat is strong, coarse, and of a game-like flavour. Seal flesh is exceedingly oily, and not very palatable; but by practice, residents in the northern regions learn to relish both exceedingly. The large tongue, the heart, and liver of the walrus are often eaten by whalers for want of better fresh provisions, and are passably good. To most of the rude littoral tribes of Northern Asia and America, the whale and seal furnish, not only food and clothing, but many other useful materials. The Esquimaux will eat the raw flesh of the whale with the same apparent relish, when newly killed, or after it has been buried for several months. The whales on the coasts of Japan not only afford oil in great abundance, but their flesh, which is there considered very wholesome and nutritious, is largely consumed. No part of them indeed, is thrown away; all is made available to some useful purpose or another.

THE various uses of the Mammalia in the economy of Nature can only be touched upon; a volume would not exhaust the subject. The more ferocious animals prey upon those that are weaker than themselves, and thus fulfil an appointed law of Nature, by preserving the balance of numbers within the limits which the earth can support; white these animals of prey themselves disappear when man approaches; who then assumes the dominion which they have preserved for him. It must not be forgotten that we feed on grass through the intervention of the Cow: which in this way is to us a mere chemical -laboratory converting grass into milk. But for the Reindeer, the lichen of Lapland would have been a useless vegetable in the world: it is now the similar food of man, in the same manner.

The Hog, the Duck, and more of our servants, are also laboratories, to convert waste and pernicious matters to use for us; returning to us, with advantage, our own waste and that of nature. Without that service, all this would be lost, and man would be restricted in proportion. Providence did not create these economists of His fragments without a meaning: but it is for us to profit by these benevolent designs. It has already been shown to how large an extent animals contribute to man’s sustenance in all parts of the earth; and that they are scarcely of less importance in producing materials for clothing, and for other arts of civilization. There is also another view to be taken of the uses of animals to man ; - they are his labourers, his companions, and his friends. All things were made for man: he is entitled to derive use from everything; while he has wishes inciting him, and powers enabling him, to attempt and to succeed.

The Camel is known to us now but as the servant and follower of man. The indispensable services which he derives from it are familiar: it is equally known, that without its aid man could not exist in countries which he, now, extensively inhabits. That it kneels to be loaded, without instruction, and that it has a provision on its knees and breast for that purpose, prove that peculiar destination for man’s use, which it is needless to urge. If it has been said that these and the hump are the produce of pressure and use, "marks of servitude," how can this be, when the animal is born with them? Did the Creator not intend that the children of Ishmael should trade through the sandy deserts? Is there anything of all which man does which was not foreknown, or anything permitted, for which He has not provided?

The horse is more widely necessary to man, and equally adapted to his wants. Its back is of that shape which man would have made for his own use had he constructed it; the mouth is almost the only one which bears the bit without suffering; it has the only foot, which will endure an additional weight under rapid motion; it is the only wild animal of similar power which is tamed in a few hours; and nothing but appointed instinct could have thus taught it to submit, and even to rejoice in its rider. The Ass is known in the wild state; but has been domesticated from the earliest times. Owing to a precision of footing, which is even augmented in the mule, it is fitted for those mountain difficulties where the horse becomes less serviceable: while its strength, patience, steadiness, and endurance of privation in food, form a combination of qualities that point to the design which allotted it, another servant to man.

There are many kinds of the dog, of distinct powers and intelligences, while the particular services of each kind are needed. If these kinds, being only domestic, are species, they were created, originally, with and for man: if they are but varieties, an exclusive law has been made in his favour, in this race, which renders varieties equivalent to species; while they are thus rendered numerous, various, and permanent, through a permission given to man, or by the Deity for him: since they occur nowhere else than in his society and under his care.

The Ox stands foremost, as a patient and powerful labourer; most remotely domesticated, gentle and docile, though with great means of rebellion and offence, and, in its female, supplying abundance of animal food, without suffering. Deprive man of this animal, of the dog, and of the horse, and he could not maintain his position in the world for a year: he never could have attained the one which he holds, nor could he discover a compensation.

The Buffalo has demanded more attention and more compulsion: the Reindeer offers a case analogous to the camel; it has enabled man to inhabit large territories which must otherwise have been untenantable by him. The gentle and docile Llama, and the Elephant, require only to be named; though in the latter, we are bound to remark the unexpected facility for domestication, together with the remarkable powers of intellect which it exerts in our service.

If personal attachment to man is one of the implanted instincts of animals; the Dog is the example as undisputed as it is perfect. It is the instinct of an entire race; while there is often a select attachment, added to the general tendency towards mankind. It is true that all man’s associates are susceptible of such individual attachments, not only down to the bird, but to the very insect; though we are unable to conjecture the cause, since it does not always arise from feeding or from kindness, as, in the dog, it is noted to be independent of both.

In the Camel, there appears a desire towards man, without any marks of peculiar attachment; but we are not well informed respecting this animal: it is probable that an indolence of character, or stupidity, producing submission, confirmed by habit, is an efficient cause; though the readiness to kneel to him proves that this obedience is an implanted instinct for his service. Nor is there any other case, even that of the Horse, in which we can allow much effect to a marked principle of attachment, however that may occasionally appear. That it can be produced, however, even in a purely wild animal, we know by the instance of the elephant; while, whenever it does occur, it may be, even as in the dog, though in a less marked manner, the proof of a neglected and applicable instinct pervading a whole race.