498 Original Articles. [July, 
deemed by a touch of romance from the ordinary utilitarian ends of 
similar undertakings. 
Among the useful animals to which the Société d’Acclimatation* 
have directed special attention, the yak is conspicuous, a native of 
Thibet,—a creature possessing a most valuable skin or fleece, and which 
is found to breed very readily in the garden of the Society; and, 
although it at present yields but little milk, it is hoped that in time, 
the influence of domestication may render it more valuable in this as 
in other particulars. Several prizes are offered for the breeding of 
these animals, viz. :—two prizes of 2.500 francs each, for anyone who 
shall produce by the 1st December, 1865, four yaks of pure blood, of 
a year old, and of his own breeding ; also other prizes of 1,800 and 
1,200 frances, for crosses between yaks of pure breed and mountain 
cattle (vaches de travail); as well as smaller prizes for such animals 
as shall prove apt as beasts of labour or of burden. 
Similar experiments are in course of trial upon Angora and 
Egyptian goats, Caramanian and Merino sheep, &c., which are reported 
to be in a fair way to success ; and encouragement is held out by prizes 
of various amounts, for the production of small flovks of these animals, 
for the purest breed, and the heaviest producible fieece. 
The gathering together in good condition, and in sufficient numbers 
to establish a species, of foreign animals and plants is necessarily a 
very slow and delicate process, and much time must obviously be ex- 
pended before very decided results can be expected. Most of these 
animals breed only once a year, and their natural increase is, therefore, 
slow, however eminently they may prove themselves adapted to their 
new home. Nor is it to be expected that every experiment of the 
kind should be at once successful. We should regret to see an energetic 
movement damped by temporary misfortune, and we trust that the ill 
success attending the first attempts (in 1860) at the introduction of 
Llamas and Alpacas into France will only be a difficult stepping-stone 
to the accomplishment of a task of great importance, both in an agri- 
cultural and economical point of view. 
A second attempt is already contemplated, and the Presidents of 
Peru and Equador have offered two troops of these animals, and M. St. 
Hilaire has published a paper relating the causes of the recent failure, 
with instructions as to their treatment with a view to avoid such 
failure in future. 
Similar attempts are being made to utilize the wild ass, and 
* The Imperial Zoological Society of Acclimatization publishes a monthly 
‘ Bulletin,’ the numbers of which are now before us, and contain a great deal of 
most interesting matter (‘ Bulletin Mensuel de la Société Imperiale Zoologique 
dAcclimatation. Paris: Masson & Fils). The object of this Society (which has 
been founded ten years) is to co-operate “for the purpose of introducing, acclima- 
tizing, and domesticating species of animals which are either useful or ornamental, 
and the improvement and multiplication of races newly introduced or domesticated. 
The Society also oceupies itself with the introduction and cultivation of useful 
vegetables.’ M. Drouyn de Lhuys, the Foreign Minister, is President of the 
Society, and its council includes the names of Passy, Richard, Dupin, Cloquet, 
Dumeril, Quatrefages, and others ; while it also enjoys a peculiar share of the 
Imperial countenance and patronage. 
