June 18th [186]21
Sir.
I am directed by the Council of the Acclimatisation Society to thank you for the letters laid before them through the superintendent at the meeting yesterday2 and to intimate how the Council intend dealing with them.
Firstly with reference to Mr Berg they request that you will kindly write a general letter to this gentleman offering the best services of the Council in reciprocating his offers and at the same time calling Mr Berg's attention to the following paragraphs passed by the Council. "The Council are very desirous of obtaining chiefly birds and other animals of an economically useful kind, and those native kinds already domesticated in your locality, and examples of the game of the country in your neighbourhood are most particularly desired in the first instance."
Mr Butler, the Council have directed me in accordance with your suggestions to write to and by the July mail vessel some specimens of animals will be sent to Mr Butler.
There appears to be some mistake with reference to the sex of the Fallow deer presented to Mr Francis, it was a female fallow deer that the Council placed at his disposition. I am directed to write Mr Francis as the superintendent informed the Council that such were your wishes.3
The Council are of opinion that 1 pair of kangaroos or Wallabys, 6 native quail 6 Lowry parrots and a few magpies might be sent to Major Whitmore.
Could you kindly inform me whether the books promised by the French Society arrived per "kent"4
I have the honor to be
Sir
Your most Obedt Servant
Geo Sprigg
Secretary
To Ferdinand Mueller Esq M.D. Ph.D.
&c. &c. &c.
editorial addition.
At a meeting of the Council of the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria held on 17 June 1862, the Superintendent presented three letters that had been sent to M: a letter 'from Mr A Berg of the Isle of Bourbon (where he was the representative of the French Acclimatisation Society) wishing to commence a system of interchange'; one from Mr Butler of Calcutta 'offering his services in procuring specimens of any Indian animals or birds in return for native animals from here', in response to which 'the secretary was directed to write to Mr Butler per next mail and inform him that by the "Bombay" leaving here in July a first shipment should be sent and that these should speedily be followed by others'; and one from George Francis, Director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden, 'declining the offer of the Llamas and stating that at present he is unable to procure any red kangaroos', in response to which 'the secretary was directed to enter into direct communications with Mr Francis' (Unit 1, p. 196, VPRS 2223, Public Record Office, Victoria). The letters have not been found but for newspaper summaries of two of them, see A. Berg to M, April 1862 (in this edition as 62-04-00f), and H. Butler to M, May 1862 (in this edition as 62-05-00g).
George Francis had been sent some animals (listed in G. Sprigg to M, 30 April 1862) in response to a request made by the Chief Secretary of SA to his Victorian counterpart; see M to J. Moore, 16 April 1862, and notes thereto.
See M to J. O'Shanassy, 1 May 1862 (in this edition as 62-05-01a) and notes thereto.
Société Imperiale d'Acclimatation de France to M, February 1862 (in this edition as 62-02-00a), notified M that a complete set of the Society's publications had been sent by Kent, which had arrived in Melbourne on 3 June. The receipt of the volumes was reported at the Council meeting held on 24 June 1862 (Argus, 25 June 1862, p. 4, col. f).
Please cite as “FVM-62-06-18a,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on