52 ANIMAL COLONISTS 



buy, as well as by the importation of the merino sheep 

 from Spain, with which the English breeds were crossed ; 

 and, by a fortunate coincidence, the time at which 

 Australasia desired an accession of quality to quantity 

 in her British -descended stock corresponded with a 

 period of extraordinary activity and success in the 

 breeding and development of pedigree cattle, sheep, 

 horses, and swine by the ' landed interest,' owners and 

 tenants alike, in this country. We need not follow 

 this, the greatest and most obvious invasion of the 

 New World by the host of British animals, beyond 

 the facts conveyed in the sum-total of the numbers of 

 the three most necessary, and therefore most numerous, 

 classes the sheep, cattle, and horses, the two latter 

 being mainly, if not entirely, of British descent owned 

 by the colonies of Australia and New Zealand. The 

 figures are, in round numbers, one hundred and eleven 

 millions of sheep, nine millions of cattle, and one million 

 three hundred thousand horses. Except the merino 

 sheep, the Angora goat, and the camel, recently intro- 

 duced into West Australia, we believe that there is no 

 domesticated animal in Australia which is not of 

 English stock. Numbers must be considered first, 

 if justice is to be done to the magnitude of this animal 

 movement from West to East ; but, apart from count- 

 ing heads, the list of British species entirely omitted 

 from the totals given above, but now firmly established 



