194 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



and this is probably even to the advantage of the former, since, 

 without some such check, the ruminants and rodents would tend to 

 multiply beyond the limits of subsistence afforded even by the rich 

 vegetation of this region. The uniformity of the North African 

 steppes and the relatively (though not really) frequent occurrence 

 of standing and flowing water hinder the formation of those im- 

 mense mobs of antelopes which are observed in the Karroo of South 

 Africa; everywhere, however, we come across these elegant, fine- 

 eyed ruminants, singly, in small herds, or in considerable companies, 

 and they seem to keep to approximately the same spots in summer 

 and winter. Zebras and wild asses, on the other hand, are 

 only found on the dry heights; the giraffe lives exclusively in the 

 thin woods, while the rhinoceros almost always seeks the densest 

 growths; the elephant entirely avoids broad open tracts, and the 

 ill-tempered buffaloes cling to the moist low ground. On these last, 

 as on the tame herds of cattle, the lion preys, while the cunning 

 leopard and the nimble, untiring cheetah, are more given to stalk- 

 ing the antelopes; the jackals and steppe-wolves prefer the hares: 

 the foxes, civets, and polecats seek the small rodents and those birds 

 which live on the ground. 



From this abundant fauna I must select some for special notice, 

 but I shall withstand the temptation of choosing lion or cheetah, 

 hysena or ratel, zebra or other wild horse, giraffe or buffalo, elephant 

 or rhinoceros, for there are some others which seem to me more 

 truly distinctive of the steppe. Among these I place in the first rank 

 the ant-eater, or aard-vark, and the pangolin the old-world repre- 

 sentatives of the Edentates which have their head-quarters in the 

 western hemisphere, and belong to an order whose golden age lies 

 many ages behind us. Both aard-vark and pangolin are, in North 

 Africa at least, distinctively steppe animals, for it is only there that 

 the ant-hills and termitaries are sufficiently numerous to afford 

 them comfortable maintenance. Like all ant-eaters they lie 

 during the day rolled up almost in a ball, sleeping in deep burrows 

 which they have dug out, and which one sees opening alike on the 

 broad, treeless, grass plain and among the sparse trees and shrubs. 

 Only when night has set in do they become lively; with clumsy 



