1885.1 
Acclimatisation. 
211 
man and man were totally removed, the race would degene- 
rate. _ But if it reaches such a degree of intensity as it has 
done in our times, it compels men more and more to fix their 
sole attention upon what is immediately useful, overlooking 
all labour which promises greater rewards in the future. In 
this manner creative minds find themselves at a discount. 
How far-reaching may be the effects of the introduction 
of a single new animal species is best shown at St. Helena 
and at the Cape of Good Hope. In both these regions 
goats were acclimatised by European settlers. One of the 
most prominent attributes of these animals is to browse 
down seedling trees and shrubs. In consequence, as goats 
multiplied, and as the old trees in the woods died off, there 
were no young trees to take their places. The woods dis- 
appeared little by little. ; the shrubs and low-growing 
vegetation which had flourished in their shade perished 
likewise. 1'he birds and the inseCts which found shelter 
and nutriment in the trees could not survive. In this man- 
ner the native flora and fauna of St. Helena have been so 
completely blotted out that their nature is a mere matter of 
conjecture. 
Still this is not all ; when a country is denuded of woods 
the rainfall, instead of being moderate and regular, is reduced 
to violent deluges, interspersed with intervals of withering 
drought. The soil, being no longer held together by the 
roots of trees and herbage, is torn away by the violent rains 
and washed down into the valleys and river-beds, whilst the 
uplands remain barren wastes of shingle and boulders hence- 
forth incapable of cultivation. To this state millions of 
acres of the finest land in the world have been reduced by 
acclimatisation ! 
I think that all colonies should forbid, under the severest 
penalties, the introduction of any weed, any mammal not 
living in a state of domestication, and any such bird as the 
sparrow. The men who brought the thistle and the rabbit 
into Australia have done more harm to the human race than 
if they had committed a hundred murders. 
