Oct. 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



AND ACCLIMATISATION. 115 



hunted and killed for their hides alone. Australia and the Islands of 

 the Pacific have no native domestic animals, if we again except the 

 dog ; and Australia alone has many mammals sufficiently large to he 

 hunted for their flesh. There formerly existed in New Zealand a large 

 hird (the Moa) which was eaten by the natives, but it seems to have 

 been exterminated, or nearly so, before the colonization of the islands. 

 European animals have been largely and advantageously introduced 

 throughout the Pacific Ocean, and in some cases have become wild and 

 even dangerous. As in Europe, all the domestic animals of the various 

 parts of the world appear to have been brought into their present 

 condition for many ages, inasmuch as they were all found in a domes- 

 tic state when the several countries were first visited by Europeans. 

 And an attentive study of the list, and of the peculiarities of the 

 animals composing it, induced me to believe that in attempting to 

 introduce new domestic animals into some of our colonies, it would 

 be desirable not to confine ourselves to European breeds, but to ascer- 

 tain whether some of the domestic races of Asia and Africa might not 

 be better adapted to the climate and other conditions of the colony, 

 although, for reasons to which I have before adverted, it would neither be 

 worth the trouble, nor consistent with good policy, to attempt their 

 introduction here. There is evidently ample room for such experi- 

 ments, which might be advantageously made in the colonies of the 

 west coast of Africa ; for instance, where our horse, ass, ox, sheep, 

 and goats, and even the dogs, have greatly degenerated ; where the 

 horse and the ass live only for a very brief period ; where the flesh of the 

 ox and the sheep is described as bad and rare ; and the flesh of the goat, 

 which is more common, is said to be tasteless and stringy. The pig alone, 

 of all our domestic animals, seems to bear the change with equanimity ; 

 and the produce of the " milch pig," so often sold to passengers by the mail- 

 packets and the ships on the stations as the milk of the cow, or even of 

 the goat, is rarely to be obtained. Unfortunately, both the white and 

 the black inhabitants are merely sojourners in the land, and do not seem 

 to possess sufficient energy or inclination to make the experiments them- 

 selves. Secondly, as regards the introduction of the domestic races of 

 one country into another. There can be no doubt that this is a much more 

 important object in relation to our Australian colonies, and other settle- 

 ments planted in waste lands, than it is to old countries, such as all the 

 European states, and that it has been pursued, as far as thej T are con- 

 cerned, with great success. Dr. George Bennett, in the third annual 

 ' Report of the Acclimatisation Society of New Holland,' has well 

 observed : — " We have lately heard of acclimatisation dinners in London 

 and other places, but a dinner in New South Wales of food naturalised 

 in the colony occurs every day, and a finer display cannot be surpassed 

 in any country." Few countries were so badly supplied by Nature with 

 useful animals and plants as the Australian continent ; and while we do 

 not receive in Europe a single indigenous product for our tables, 



