260 cook's first voyage SEPT. 



a light, clean, pleasant acid, but it cannot be eaten 

 raw ; it is said to be excellent as a pickle ; and stewed, 

 it made a most agreeable sour sauce to our boiled 

 dishes. 



The tame animals are buffaloes, sheep, goats, hogs, 

 fowls, pigeons, horses, asses, dogs and cats ; and of 

 all these there is great plenty. The buffaloes differ 

 very considerably from the horned cattle of Europe 

 in several particulars ; their ears are much larger, 

 their skins are almost without hair, their horns are 

 curved towards each other, but together bend directly 

 backwards, and they have no dewlaps. We saw 

 several that were as big as a well grown European ox, 

 and there must be some much larger ; for Mr. Banks 

 saw a pair of horns which measured from tip to tip 

 three feet nine inches and an half, across their widest 

 diameter four feet one inch and an half, and in the 

 whole sweep of their semicircle in front seven feet six 

 inches and a half. It must however be observed, 

 that a buffaio here of any given size, does not weigh 

 above half as much as an ox of the same size in Eng- 

 land: those that we guessed to weigh four hundred 

 weight did not weigh more than two hundred and 

 fifty; the reason is, that so late in the dry season the 

 bones are very thinly covered with flesh : there is not 

 an ounce of fat in a whole carcase, and the flanks are 

 literally nothing but skin and bone : the flesh how- 

 ever is well tasted and juicy, and I suppose better 

 than the flesh of an English ox would be, if he was to 

 starve in this sun-burnt country. 



The horses are from eleven to twelve hands high, 

 but though they are small, they are spirited and nim- 

 ble, especially in pacing, which is their common 

 step : the inhabitants generally ride them without a 

 saddle, and with no better bridle than a halter. The 

 sheep are of the kind which in England are called 

 Bengal sheep, and differ from ours in many particulars. 

 They are covered with hair instead of wool, their 

 ears are very large, and hang down under their horns, 



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