88 



THE TROnCAL WORLD. 



arid plains of South Africa explains how these wastes are peopled 

 by herds of herbivorous animals, which in their turn are preyed 



upon by the lion, the panther, or 

 tlie python. Hundreds of elands 

 {Boselaphus oreas) gemsbucks, koo- 

 doos, (Strepsiceros capensis), or 

 duikers {Cephalopus mergens), may 

 often be seen thirty or forty miles 

 from the nearest water. These, 

 having sharp-pointed hoofs well 

 adapted for digging, are able to 

 subsist without water for many 

 months at a time, by living on 

 KOODOO. moist bulbs and tubers ; while the 



presence of the rhinoceros, of the 

 buffalo and gnu (Catoblepas Gmi), of the giraffe, the zebra, 

 and pallah (Antilope melampus), is always a certain indica- 

 tion of water being within a distance of seven or eight miles. 



The tribes of the Kalahari consist of Bushmen, probably the 

 aborigines of the southern part of the continent, and of Bakala- 

 hari, the remnants of an ancient Bechuana emigration. 



The diminutive Bushman occupies nearly the lowest degree 

 in the scale of humanity. Equalled in size by the Chimpanzee, 

 far surpassed by the Grorilla, and with as little prominence of 

 the nasal bone as in those highest of the Simioe, he nevertheless 

 walks erect, and by the equal and uninterrupted series of his 

 comparatively small teeth, by his well-developed great toe and 

 the large opposable thumb, by his plantigrade foot and prehen- 

 sile hand, vindicates his claim to the genus man. Inhabiting 

 the arid deserts of South Africa, from the confines of the Cape 

 Colony to the banks of the Zambesi, or possibly even as far 

 north as the valley of the Nile, he is the only real nomad in 

 South Africa, as the scanty means of subsistence the land affords 

 compel him to a life of constant wandering. He never cultivates 

 the soil excepting perhaps for the sake of a little dacha or wild 

 hemp for smoking, nor rears any domestic animal save wretched 

 dogs. As a hunter he rivals the American Indian in his inti- 

 mate acquaintance with the habits of the game, and the skill 

 he evinces in their capture. He follows them in their migra- 

 tions from place to place, and proves as complete a check upon 



