EQUINOCTIAL AFRICA.—SHELLS.— QUADRUPEDS. 103 
tuberculated Melanie 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 Cypr@a 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. 
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