ANIMAL ACCLIMATIZATION 313 



as this is to the naturalist, but in their way of life, free 

 and unconfined in an English park. That is the lot of 

 the greater number of the animals at Woburn, some 

 being entirely free and wandering at large, like the 

 native red-deer and fallow-deer, while the others, though 

 for the present in separate enclosures, are kept in 

 reserves so spacious, and so lightly though effectively 

 separated, that they have the appearance of enjoying 

 the same degree of liberty. Almost the first question 

 which suggests itself is, What is the general effect of 

 this gathering of over-sea animals, from the African 

 veldt and Indian hills, the Manchurian mountains and 

 North American prairies, and from wild- animal land 

 quod ubique est, on the green pastures and under the 

 elms and oaks round the home of a great English 

 family ? Briefly, we may say that the effect is mag- 

 nificent. On leaving Woburn, the valleys and meadows 

 stocked with our ordinary domestic animals seem 

 solitary and deserted after the eye has rested for hours 

 on the varied and impressive forms that crowd the 

 slopes, groves, and glades of this fine park. This effect 

 is due in part to the largeness of the scale on which the 

 stocking of Woburn with wild animals has been carried 

 out. In the phrase of the farmer, the park ' carries a 

 larger head' of animals than is commonly seen on a 

 similar area, even in the richest pastures. The scene 

 recalls the descriptions of the early travellers in Southern 



