EQUINOCTIAL AFRICA. SHELLS. QUADRUPEDS. 103 



tuberculated Melanice occur in the Gambia ; and others, 

 allied to the genus Cerithium, are common in the salt- 

 water marshes towards Sierra Leone ; but we have no 

 indication of those numerous fluviatile bivalves, so abun- 

 dant in the rivers of tropical America. 



(145.) The pearl oysters {Margarita Leach) are 

 small, and do not appear worthy of commercial specu- 

 lation ; but the small Cyprcea moneta, or money cowry, 

 is well known as a substitute for coin among the bar- 

 baric nations of Western Africa : we know not whether 

 the species is precisely the same as the shell, called by 

 this name, so abundant in the Indian seas. 



(146.) Let us now pass to the third great division of 

 African zoology, comprehending the remainder of the 

 continent south of Angola. In no region of the globe does 

 there appear so great a variety of quadrupeds, and of 

 such large dimensions. The limits, however, of this zoo- 

 logical region are altogether obscure. We are still without 

 much information on those animals of Southern Africa, 

 which may inhabit the north- western sides of the 

 Gariep ; while the borders of the Great Fish River, 

 forming the boundaries of the Cape Colony, have not yet 

 been explored by the scientific naturalist. The interior 

 deserts, indeed, have been penetrated, to lat. 26 S., by 

 that accomplished traveller Burchell ; and from him we 

 learn, that the animals he observed in these inland 

 regions do not materially differ from such as frequent 

 the Great Karoos, or those deserts which terminate the 

 northern extent of the colony. The chief seat, therefore, 

 of South African zoology must lie towards that im- 

 mense line of forests stretching along the coast from 

 Bosjeveld to the banks of the Great Fish River. These 

 forests, in all probability, extend to a vast distance 

 beyond; forming, like those of tropical America, a 

 gigantic belt of verdure between the arid deserts of the 

 interior and the more fertile borders of the coast. We 

 shall now briefly notice the most remarkable of eighty 

 quadrupeds, described by naturalists as inhabiting 

 Southern Africa. 



H 4 



