1833.] FOOD OF LARGE QUADRUPEDS. 87 



drupeds no doubt roam over wide tracts in search of it ; and 

 their food chiefly consists of underwood, which probably contains 

 much nutriment in a small bulk. Dr. Smith also informs me 

 that the vegetation has a rapid growth ; no sooner is a part con- 

 sumed, than its place is supplied by a fresh stock. There can 

 be no doubt, however, that our ideas respecting the apparent 

 amount of food necessary for the support of large quadrupeds are 

 much exaggerated : it should have been remembered that the 

 camel, an animal of no mean bulk, has always been considered as 

 the emblem of the desert. 



The belief that where large quadrupeds exist, the vegetation 

 must necessarily be luxuriant, is the more remarkable, because 

 the converse is far from true. Mr. Burchell observed to me 

 that when entering Brazil, nothing struck him more forcibly 

 than the splendour of the South American vegetation contrasted 

 with that of South Africa, together with the absence of all large 

 quadrupeds. In his Travels,* he has suggested that the com- 

 parison of the respective weights (if there were sufficient data) 

 of an equal number of the largest herbivorous quadrupeds of 

 each country would be extremely curious. If we take on the 

 one side, the elephant,f hippopotamus, giraffe, bos caffer, elan, 

 certainly three, and probably five species of rhinoceros ; and on 

 the American side, two tapirs, the guanaco, three deer, the vicuna, 

 peccari, capybara (after which we must, choose from the monkeys 

 to complete the number), and then place these two groups along- 

 side each other, it is not easy to conceive ranks more dispro- 

 portionate in size. After the above facts, we are compelled to 



* Travels in the Interior of South Africa, vol. ii., p. 207. 



t The elephant which was killed at Exeter Change was estimated (heing 

 partly weighed) at five tons and a half. The elephant actress, as I was in- 

 formed, weighed one ton less ; so that we may take five as the average of a 

 full-grown elephant. I was told at the Surrey Gardens, that a hippopotamus 

 which was sent to England cut up into pieces was estimated at three tons and 

 a half, we will call it three. From these premises we may give three tons 

 and a half to each of the five rhinoceroses ; perhaps a ton to the giraffe, and 

 half to the bos caffer as well as to the elan (a large ox weighs from 1200 to 

 1500 pounds). This will give an average (from the above estimates) of 2' 7 

 of a ton for the ten largest herbivorous animals of Southern Africa. In 

 South America, allowing 1200 pounds for the two tapirs together, 550 for the 

 guanaco and vicuna, 500 for three deer, 300 for the capybara, peccari, and a 

 monkey, we shall have an average of 250 pounds, which I believe is over- 

 stating the result. The ratio will therefore be as 6048 to 250, or 24 to 1, for 

 the ten largest animals from the two continents. 





