28 
parts of their bodies seldom acquire very volu- 
minous proportions. On the contrary, animals ex- 
posed to a cold and moist climate, along with 
more strongly marked proportions, have their 
skin thicker, harder, and drier; their hair longer, 
coarser, and more bushy; their extremities 
shorter, with the tendons less strongly pro- 
nounced ; the horns softer and more spongy ; the 
feet larger, broader, more flattened, and less com- 
pact; the muscles stronger, closer, and well sup- 
plied with fat. Their temperament is rather 
lymphatic than sanguineous; their circulation is 
slower; they possess less physical and mental 
energy, and may almost be said to consist wholly 
of matter, as they are visibly deficient in ardour, 
energy, and courage. The animals of temperate 
climates occupy in all respects a mean between 
these two extremes. 
Animals have, as well as vegetables, their na- 
tural habitations and stations, to which they 
should be approximated as much as possible in 
the state of domestication ; and it is always dan- 
gerous to separate them from these localities 
without the greatest caution. Nature often 
places insurmountable obstacles to their migra- 
tions, by depriving them, as we have already 
| seen, of the power of reproducing anywhere ex- 
cept in their native countries. The study of 
habitations and stations is therefore of the high- 
est importance in the management of the domes- 
tic animals. By the term habitation, we com- 
monly understand the climate which each animal 
prefers, because it is best adapted to its organiza- 
tion; and by station, that particular place which 
each of them chooses in the same country and 
under the same climate, from its finding more 
resources in that locality for living and satisfying 
all the conditions of its organization. Thus, the 
habitation of the rein-deer appears to be irrevoca- 
bly fixed to the frozen countries adjoining the 
North pole, where this animal has long been 
domesticated, and yields the most important 
services. After the many unsuccessful trials 
which have been made, it may be considered as 
almost impossible to render it acclimated in the 
temperate plains of Europe. Perhaps it might 
succeed, with the proper precautions, on the 
summits of our coldest mountains. Again, the 
natural station of the rabbit is on a sandy and 
dry soil; that of the sheep and goat in dry and 
elevated regions; the buffalo and bull delight in 
low and moist situations. These animals cannot 
be separated entirely and suddenly from their 
natural stations, without exposing them to in- 
conveniences more or less serious. In all at- 
tempts at acclimating foreign animals it is, there- 
fore, as important to study their natural station 
as their habitation. 
Wherever the same temperature prevails, and 
in whatever latitude, it is generally possible to 
find some spots where animals may be imported 
with success, where they will multiply like plants 
in analogous situations. It appears also, that 
ACCLIMATATION OF ANIMALS. 
those animals which Nature has placed in the 
temperate climates, may extend themselves in- 
sensibly towards the opposite extremes of heat 
and cold; for, as Pallas has judiciously observed, 
all our domestic animals of the North and South 
are found wild and apparently native, in the tem- 
perate regions of Central Asia. 
It has long been remarked that those animals, 
as well as plants, which have their natural sta- 
tion in dry and elevated countries, are analogous 
to the living productions of cold countries; and 
that those species which delight most in low and 
moist grounds approach more nearly in general 
character to the productions of the South. This 
serves to indicate that it is commonly more ad- 
vantageous to attempt the acclimation of animals 
from warm countries in low localities, whilst those 
of the North are most easily naturalized in dry 
and elevated regions, and it is always useful in 
practice to study these analogies by attending to 
the natural disposition, whether low or elevated, 
which a cold or warm country is capable of afford- 
ing. It seems probable, also, that individuals 
will be more easily acclimated in places which 
form the natural stations of congenerous species, 
than of those greatly removed from them, for the 
same dispositions and qualities are usually found 
to exist in animals belonging to the different 
species of the same genus. The chances of a suc- 
cessful acclimation are further increased by the 
adoption of a similar, or at least a kind of food 
analogous to that which they would have received 
in their native country; and, in some instances, 
this is indispensable to their existence. Thus, 
we often see birds, directed by the migratory in- 
stinct, resorting to localities where they can find 
that kind of food which is necessary to their ex- 
istence, and of which they have been deprived by 
the severity of the climate. 
It follows from the above observations, that 
whenever animals are imported from a country 
which is very hot or very cold, very dry or very 
moist, to one which is less so, and that it be- 
comes desirable to maintain them in a state of 
health, so that they may continue their species 
by generation, and in general maintain the 
healthy exercise of all their functions, it becomes 
necessary to observe the following precautions: 
—lst, To approximate them bya convenient and 
suitable position to their original and natural 
situation; and, 2dly, To avoid all sudden transi- 
tions with the greatest caution, so as to acclimate 
them gradually. The climate, as we have already 
remarked, exercises a most direct and powerful 
influence upon the physical and intelligent powers 
of all animals as well as upon their offspring ; and 
hence we may readily anticipate alterations more 
or less sensible and permanent, on transporting 
them suddenly, and without the suitable precau- 
tions, to remote distances, or perhaps to situa- 
tions of an opposite kind to those whence they 
were abstracted. The effects become more appa- 
rent when their transportation is effected from 
