ae 
19Q2. on animal and vegetable food. 163 
‘triment. Nature has decreed that the torrid zone 
dhould be the abode of the strongest beasts of prey. 
Lions, tigers, leopards, and others of like nature, 
in Africa, as far as it extends within the torrid zone, 
in southern Asia, and in all the great East Indian 
islands, are so numerous and bold, that the habitati- 
ons of men are never safe from their ravages ; much 
lefs is it therefore pofsible to keep herds of oxen, cows, 
and fheep. But if they could protect great herds of 
such tame animals against the depredations of their 
"enemies, yet would they have, in most of the re- 
gions of the torrid zone, other insurmountable ob-. 
stacles to encounter, arising from the climate itself. 
Almost all the countries of the torrid zone experi- 
ence annually, once or twice, periodical interchanges 
-of dry and humid seasons. In the wet season, hea- 
vy fhowers of rain perpetually succeed each other, 
with very fhort intervals, for several months toge- 
‘ther: all the streams overflow their banks, and 
deluge the lower grounds with water four cr 
five feet in depth, and therefore exactly those 
flats where cattle and fheep principally find their 
nourifhment. In the dry season, the plamts and 
grafses, which had fhot forth, with inconceivable 
rapidity on the retreat of the waters, are presently 
burnt up by the perpendicular rays of a sun scarce- 
ly ever clouded ; and therefore in the season that is 
free from rain, there is generally 2 want of fodder 
for the larger kinds of domestic animals. But if 
here and there, as in the peninsula of India, cattle 
may be bred,.yet their increase is so slow as toke 
