346 ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETIES. 



your perfect races there is as yet no place for the yak. 

 But these races have not always existed. You have 

 fashioned the horse, the ox, the sheep, in conformity 

 with your wants ; why may the like not be done with 

 the yak ? The day is perhaps not distant when we shall 

 have its breeds for wool, for milk, for butcher-meat. 

 Alongside of your large farms there are many very 

 small properties. Perhaps the yak is destined to be- 

 come the ox of the man of small capital, as the ass is 

 already the horse of the poor. Its native rusticity, and 

 the little food which it consumes, appear to assign this 

 as its place. It may never inhabit the prairies of Nor- 

 mandy or the fields of Limagne, but on the hillocks of 

 Vosges, on the heights of Cevennes, in the Alps, in the 

 Pyrenees, it will browse on the short grass which pushes 

 through the snow, as it does in its native land. Per- 

 haps, in short, it may not be very serviceable to France ; 

 possibly it may chiefly migrate to the north. What of 

 that? It is not the first time that France has at her 

 own cost made experiments useful to others." 



These are the very qualities which we should desire 

 in an animal sought to be acclimatised for the special 

 benefit of the Scottish Highlands. Our loftiest moun- 

 tains will not be too inhospitable as localities for crea- 

 tures indigenous to the heights of the Himalayas. Their 

 power of adapting themselves to circumstances alien to 

 those of their natural condition is singularly shown 

 by their thriving in a locality so warm and low as that 

 of Paris ; so that we may expect that their introduction 

 into this country would be a boon widely and speedily 

 diffused. In six years the herd of twelve introduced 

 by M. de Montigny had increased to thirty-five. They 

 have also evinced great readiness to cross with other 

 animals of like species. The cross between the yak 

 bull and a French cow is a valuable animal. There 

 can be no difficulty in introducing them into this coun- 

 try; and we trust that ere long we shall see the yak 

 browsing on our hill-sides. We invoke the powerful 



