HARDY ON PROVINCIAL ACCLIMATIZATION. 15 



(compare favourably with, those of Digby County. The beauty and 

 lustre of their skins, either red or black, i\ith their noble brush, 

 relieved by its snowy tip, must be our apology for hoping, not- 

 withstanding he is the prince of vermin thieves, that the day is far 

 oflF when he ^^-ill be extinct in our pine-fir covers, or that a manda- 

 rin may not expend bis fifty guineas to gratify his semi-barbarous 

 tastes. 



Note. — As this article is passing through the press, Capt. Hardy has given me a 

 bat which from its inter-femoral membrane I think may be V, evotis. This will then 

 give us three species. 



Art. II. Ox Provincial Acclimatization. By Capt. Hardy, 



R. A. 



IRcad December 5, 1864.] 



The very recent and ambiguous term, Acclimatization, imphdng 

 the subjugation and domestication of wild races of animals ; the 

 transplanting of the useful or ornamental amongst nature's gifts in 

 the animal or vegetable kingdoms, between various portions of the 

 globe, for man's benefit; and the hybridization of species, — means 

 but a continuation of the ceaseless efforts of ci\'ilized man to utilise 

 and improve all things that were in the beguming created for his 

 use, and placed under his dominion for that express purpose. 



Accordingly we find that, in the most important branch of this 

 wide field of experimental research — the domestication of animals, — 

 nearly all the useful beasts, either of burden or for food, and in the 

 various spheres most suitable to their existence in such a subordin- 

 ate condition, have been thus turned to account from the remotest 

 antiquity. In this branch, medifeval and even modern ages have 

 witnessed no important additions to the classes of animals referred 

 to, although the transplanting and mterchange of species has taken 

 place from time to time, and various breeds imj)roved by crossing 

 with foreign varieties. And so for a long time the civilized world 

 rested on the successful, perhaps long-continued efforts of past ages, 

 apparently content with its beasts of burden, its easily reared and 

 fattened cattle, sheep and swine, its domestic poultry of ancient 

 pedigree, and with the indigenous luxmies afforded by the game and 



