V FOOD OF LARGE QUADRUPEDS 91 



think' covered with grass, and bushes about foui; feet high, and 

 still more thinly with mimosa-trees." The waggons were not 

 prevented tra\-elling in a nearly straight line. 



Besides these large animals, every one the least acquainted 

 with the natural history of the Cape has read of the herds of 

 antelopes, which can be compared only wath the flocks of 

 migratory birds. The numbers indeed of the lion, panther, and 

 hyaena, and the multitude of birds of prey, plainly speak of the 

 abundance of the smaller quadrupeds : one evening seven lions 

 were counted at the same time prowling round Dr. Smith's 

 encampment. As this able naturalist remarked to me, the 

 carnage each day in Southern Africa must indeed be terrific ! 

 I confess it is truly surprising how such a number of animals 

 can find support in a country producing so little food. The 

 larger quadrupeds 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 consumed, 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 

 comparison 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," hippopotamus, giraffe, bos caffer, 



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



2 The elephant which was killed at Exeter Change was estimated (being partly- 

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



