Some are of opinion that the 300 foxes between whose tails Samson is said to have put firebrands in order that they might set fire to the crops of the I'hilintines (Judges, xv. 4, 5) were jackals. Many of the modern oriental names for the last-mentioned animals—Chical of the Turks, Sciagal, Sciugal, Sciachal, or Shacal of the Persians--come very near to the Hebrew word Shual.' Hasselquist, speaking of "Carrie aureus, the Jackcall, Chical of the Turks," says :—" There are greater numbers of this species of fox to be met with than the former (Canis Vulpes), particularly near Jaffa, about Gaza, and in Galilee. I leave others to determine which of these is the fox of Samson." Fossil Canidce.
The remains of the Dog and Wolf have been found in Great Britain. If there were no historical records to prove that the wolf was once an inhabitant of these islands, its abundant remains would testify to the fact. They were not present in any considerable number in the Bone Caves of Kirkdale which were so diligently examined by Dr. Buck land, but they have been found at Paviland in Glamorganshire and at Overton near Plymouth. After alluding to the difficulty which was more particularly expressed by Cuvier of distinguishing between the Wolf and the Dog, Professor Owen. referring to some specintens from Kent's Hole says :—" The more important points of concord ance between the skull from Kent's Hole and those of the existing wolf leave no reasonable ground for doubting their specific identity ; and the naturalist who does not admit that the dog and the wolf are of the same species, and who might be disposed to question the reference of the British Fossils described in the present section to the wolf must in that case resort to the hypothesis that there formerly existed in England a wild variety of dog having the low and con tracted forehead of the wolf, and which had become extinct before the records of the human race. The conclusion however to which my
comparison of the fossil and recent bones of the large Canidce have led me is, that the wolves which our ancestors extirpated were of the same species as those which, at a much more remote period, left their bones in the limestone caverns by the side of the extinct bears and hymnal." Recognisable remains of the Dog have however been obtained from Bone-Caves. Dr. Schmerling has described and figured an almost entire skull, two right rami of lower jaws, a humerus, ulna, radius, and some smaller bones, indicating two varieties of the domestic dog, from some Bone-Caves near Liege.