SOUTHERN AFRICA. • 07 



black tail literally sweeps the gTound ; a mane reversed, and 

 a tuft of flowing- black hair on the breast, with a pair of 

 straight slender horns (common to both sexes), three feet 

 in leng-th, and ring-ed at the base, completing- the portrait. 

 During- the chase, I passed under the noses of three rhino- 

 ceroses, which, on my return, I was unable to find. Richard- 

 son had fallen in with a troop of five lions, one of which 

 he wounded, but being- deserted by the Hottentots, was 

 unable to follow among- the brushwood ; and my horse was 

 so completel}" exhausted, that I was oblig-ed to drag* him 

 home, carrying- the saddle myself. 



Prodig-ious swarms of locusts passed overhead to the east- 

 ward during- the g-reater part of the day, and were followed 

 b}^ such dense flig'hts of birds as almost to darken the air. 

 The sjninghaan-vogel* as the latter is called by the colon- 

 ists, is about the size of a swallow, with numerous speckles 

 like the starling-, and is said to subsist almost exclusively 

 upon the destructive insects with which it literally vies in 

 point of numbers. The ravag-es committed by the locust, 

 whose desolating* visits have been the theme of naturalists 

 and historians in all ag-es, have too probably been witnessed 

 by the majority of my Indian readers , but Africa, more 

 especially the northern parts of it, would appear to be a quar- 

 ter of the g-lobe even more frequently and more severely 

 subjected to the scourg-e of their inroads than Asia. Often 

 have the lands on the frontier of the colony been totally laid 

 waste by their migrator}^ swarms, which, as usual, have been 

 followed by all the horrors of famine ; whilst to the wander- 

 ing* Bushman, who has neither flocks nor herds to perish for 

 lack of nourishment — no g-arden nor corn-fields of which to 

 lament the devastation, the intrusion, so appalling- to the 

 g-razier and agriculturist, proves a source of joy rather than 

 of sorrow. Following up their devouring- hosts, he feeds 



* Anglice, Locust-bird. 

 F 2 



