35 
to the Times, Mr. AV'ilson asks:—“ Is your Goverumeut right, 
while surrounded by fifty fine colonies of unknown capacities, to 
leave everything to private enterprise; and, if private enterprise 
fails, to allow' the noblest undertakings to rest, comparatively 
untested by any effort whatever.” Let us do our beat, and rely 
that the Government ^vill, sooner or later, recognise our exertions 
and help us in oui' ejuleavours for the public good. 
I have now performed ray task (inadequately, I fear), of putting 
before this Society some few facta relative to the Acclimatisation 
of animals, and 1 trust that I have succeeded in making it appear 
that this is a subject the details of which are not only highly 
interesting, but cau be carried out with the prospect of great and 
most important results. Much, nevertheless, "will depend upon 
individual exertion and support, and 1 here beg to appeal to all 
those who can (and there are many w'ho have the opportunities) to 
help us as much as they can. IVlr. IMitchell, with an encouraging 
tone, -writes:—“ If a hundred of our great proprietors would each 
give up the necessary space and money to cultivate one single 
species, no matter of how great or hoiv little importance, the 
result in tiventy years would infinitely surpass all that could over 
havebcen done by so miscellaneous andcomparativelyunmanageable 
assemblage as that marvellous collection of Lord Derby’s, of 
which we speak with affection and regret,” 
Again, a writer in the Saturday Revietc, April 14, 1860, most 
justly says:—“When we consider the enormous influence produced 
upon the history of mankind by the sheep, the horse, the dog, and 
others of our domesticated animals—formerly, without doubt, 
existing in a state of nature, and reclaimed from it by the agency 
of man w'ho can deny that results, if not equally great, yet of 
the utmost importance to the human race, may follow from 
additions yet to be made to the list ? It would be strange indeed 
if, out of the numerous species not known to science to choose 
from, and with all the experience of modern civilisation, we were 
altogether to fail in selecting some with constitutions sufficiently 
pliable to be moulded into races subservient to the use and profit 
of mankind. It is true that the importance of the animals 
recently added to our domestic stock is not great, and their number 
insignificant. But this, perhaps, is as much attributable to the 
little aiteniion that has been paid to the subject as to any supposed 
exhaustion of the series of ‘ acclimatisable’ animals.” 
I do not -wish it for a moment to be supposed that I am sanguine 
or enthusiastic enough to imagine that a quarter or even a third 
of the animals, &c., will ever be acclimatised or made useful in 
