76 CATTLE 



in the possession of Mr. F. H. Barber — are those of animals in their 

 prime, with the long points grown to their maximum length. We 

 know from Mr. Millais that the bull he shot was a herd-bull, and 

 from the appearance of the fine pair of horns in Mr. Barber's posses- 

 sion, I should certainly say that the animal which carried them was 

 likewise a male. As buffalo bulls grow old they wear the points of 

 their horns down more and more, until at last the whole of the smooth 

 tip forming the upward curve of the horn disappears. More than a 

 foot is often worn off the total length of the horn. 



" According to Dr. Matschie, the true Cape buffalo {B. c. typiciis), 

 which is still found in the Addo bush in the Cape Colony, only ranges 

 northwards along the coast as far as Zululand." 



The writer concludes by suggesting that the Orange river race has 

 been separated from the Cape form by comparing horns of different ages. 

 Even if this be admitted, it does not by any means invalidate the 

 existence of a large number of local races of the species ; neither does 

 it in any way minimise the important fact that there is an almost 

 complete gradation from the big black Cape buffalo to the small 

 red buffalo of the west coast. 



The following account of South African buffaloes is abbreviated 

 from one furnished by Mr. Selous : — 



" I imagine that if a census could have been taken sixty years ago 

 of all the animals existing in Africa south of the Zambesi, buffaloes 

 would have proved to have been one of the most numerous species, 

 and might possibly have rivalled in aggregate number the most 

 gregarious of the antelopes ; for although blesboks, springboks, and 

 black wildebeests were then in countless thousands on the plains of 

 Cape Colony, the Orange River Colony, and the Transvaal, they were 

 confined to a comparatively small area of country, whereas the 

 buffaloes, in innumerable good-sized herds, were distributed over the 

 whole of South Africa, from Mossel Bay to the Zambesi, wherever 

 there were bush and water. 



" The Europeans who, some sixty years ago, first penetrated to 

 the southerly portion of the Bechuanaland Protectorate and the 

 north-western Transvaal met with great herds of buffalo on the 

 upper waters of all the westerly tributaries of the Limpopo, such as 

 the Marico and Notwani ; but in 1872 I found that these animals 

 had ceased to exist on any of the upper tributaries of the Limpopo, 

 though they were still abundant along the central course of that river 

 and on all its northern tributaries to the eastward of the Macloutsie. 

 In 1876 I came across a herd of from 200 to 300 buffaloes on the 



