establishment until we can afford a second horse for
the Brougham, and this we could hardly
manage just yet, consistently with prudence.
The berth your influence got for me in the
Foreign-office, is a very good one, but I see my
way to something better in a year or two;
besides which, it is of no use denying that Alicia
has considerable expectations from old Lady
Screw, her great-aunt by the mother's side,
and that her ladyship has attained to a great
age, and is not in robust health. All things
considered, it seems better that we should wait.
Besides, really that consideration of the second
horse is alone conclusive.
                            P. CHESTERFIELD, JUNIOR.

           LIFE SOWN BROADCAST.

THE general impression with respect to the
original living occupants of the Australian continent
is, that they consisted of the lowest grade
of human beings, kangaroos, a few specimens of
birds, and a kind of rat. If there were any
others, they were very few indeed. This paucity
of animals may have been an inducement, but it
was not the most powerful inducement, to the
formation of the Acclimatisation Society, the
foundation of which is due to the zealous efforts
of Mr. Youl, Mr. Wilson, and one or two others.
The primary inducement of the gentlemen to
whom the present generation owes so much, and
to whom future generations will owe more, was
their desire to surround themselves, in their
distant home, with the living creatures which
reminded them of the mother country; they wanted
to see the trees and bushes enlivened by the
presence of robins, chaffinches, thrushes, blackbirds,
and other common English birds. Out of this
desire sprang the desire to increase the
resources of the colony by the introduction of such
animals as should not only assist in carrying out
the first object, but add to its luxuries. From
small beginnings, the work has gone on increasing
and prospering to an extent which its
promoters could hardly have expected to see in
their lifetime.

The report of its annual meeting, which has
just reached this country, gives an account of
the number and kind of these, which include a
large number of deer, Cashmere and Angora
goats, pheasants, partridges, rabbits, geese and
ducks of many species, doves, swans, and fowls,
quails, pigeons, grouse, finches, thrushes, blackbirds,
sparrows, and many other birds from
England, beside some from foreign countries.
Other varieties of living creatures have not been
forgotten, and among these are monkeys, bees,
rabbits, porcupines, emus, and alpacas. Some
of these are retained in the Botanical Gardens
and Royal Park for breeding purposes and other
reasons, but a very large number have been
liberated at various places, and left to follow
their natural instincts. For instance, seven
Sambur deer were liberated at Westernport,
six Axis deer at Yering, twelve hogdeer at
another place, with a number of peafowl, guinea-fowls,
and pigeons. The English hare is now a
familiar object in a colonial landscape; and as
for rabbits, if they be not so numerous as to
threaten a like danger to the continent with
which they alarm the inhabitants of Heligoland,
still they are sufficiently numerous to give
promise of contributing largely to the colonists' supply
of animal food. Colonial statistics tell us
that at Geelong the ten couple of rabbits which
were introduced in 1859 have yielded fifty thousand
for consumption, and that hares are
multiplying with great rapidity. Pheasants are so
numerous that the shooting of them is not
prohibited. Unfortunately, they have a worse
enemy than the sportsman, in the hawks, which
have increased in a ratio beyond what the
society would consider satisfactory: upwards of
twelve hundred of these having been shot in the
course of last year.

Through the liberality of individuals in seconding
the exertions of the society, there seems
every probability that, in the course of a few
years, deer will be as plentiful in the bush as
they were formerly in American forests. Even
the mountainous regions have not been
forgotten, and two hundred pounds have been
appropriated for the introduction of the roebuck
into those parts which are suited for their
propagation. The same plan of liberating animals
in localities specially adapted for them is to be
followed out in other cases.

The introduction of fish has long been an
object of the society, and especially the introduction
of the ova of the salmon. In the present
year, the Tasmanian government has placed on
the estimates a vote of eight hundred pounds, for
the furtherance of what has been an already
successful experiment; this sum has been
supplemented by a grant of four hundred pounds from
the society. What has been said of the
introduction of salmon into the Tasmanian rivers,
may likewise be said of the Yarra; the young
fish put into the Badger Creek having thriven
well, and having been turned into the tributaries
of that river with every prospect of success. The
successful transportation of the ova from this
country to the colonies, requires so much care,
that few but those to whom it is a labour of
love could be induced to attempt it.

In addition to animals and fish, the society
has endeavoured to introduce the silkworm:
hitherto these attempts have failed, but other
means are being adopted to effect the purpose,
which the society is sanguine will prove
successful.

One way in which the colonies might be
greatly enriched by individuals, at a cost of a
shilling or two, would be for every emigrant to
take out one or more pairs of birds or animals
likely to be useful or ornamental. These
might be easily procured, and sailors are too
fond of anything in the way of pets to grumble
at any little inconvenience which they might
occasion. Individual efforts in a matter of this
sort will effect more at an inappreciable cost
than a society can accomplish by the expenditure
of a large sum of money, assisted though it may