240 POWER OF ANIMALS TO SCENT HERBAGE. 



gratory birds, such as the swallow, the cuckoo, and others, 

 had again made their appearance. 



The animals, which during the dry season are compelled 

 to gather round the springs and other permanent waters, were 

 enabled, by the late rains, to scatter themselves over a large 

 extent of country, and were now difficult to find. There can 

 be little doubt that the instinctive power of animals — domes- 

 ticated as well as wild — is capable of catching the scent of 

 humid winds and green herbage at a very great distance. 

 Thus I have often seen oxen turn their heads toward the 

 quarter where distant lightning indicated that rain had fall- 

 en, and sniff with evident pleasure the breeze produced by 

 colder air. Mr. Moffat, the missionary, mentions an instance 

 where a great number of cattle were entirely lost, solely, as 

 he supposes, from this cause. 



"Many years previous to my sojourn in Namaqua-land," 

 says the reverend gentleman, " Afrikaner thus lost the great- 

 er part of his cattle. One evening a strong wind commenced 

 blowing from the north ; it smelt of green grass, as the na- 

 tives expressed it. The cattle, not being in folds, started off 

 after dark. The circumstance being unprecedented, it was 

 supposed they had merely wandered out to the common, 

 where they were accustomed to graze ; but it was found, aft- 

 er much search, that some thousands of cattle had directed 

 their course to the north. A few were recovered, but the 

 majority escaped to the Damara country, after having been 

 pursued hundreds of miles." 



For my own part, I have frequently passed through local- 

 ities abounding with game, and, repassing them in a short 

 time, I have found them deserted ^vithout any apparent cause; 

 as I proceeded, however, I have discovered them in quite dif- 

 ferent quarters, and ascertained that the attraction has been 

 the young grass, which was either produced by the moisture 

 of the atmosphere, or from the natives having fired the old 

 grass. The rapidity with which parched and sun-burnt pas- 



