NATURE 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, ig 



M.4A' AND NATURE IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA. 

 Alls Namaland imd Kalahari. By Prof. Leonhard 



Schultze. Pp. xiv + 752. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 



1907.) Price 60 marks. 



THE scope of this admirable worlv on Namal-cwa- 

 land and the Kalahari has not any knowledge 

 of political boundaries. Neither is it confined to 

 ethnology or biology. Its range extends over a portion 

 of British Bechuanaland and northern Cape Colony, 

 and it deals slightly with the northern parts of Ger- 

 man South-West Africa — Damaraland and the Ovambo 

 countries. It is such a book as can as yet only be 

 published in Germany. The reproduction of Dr. 

 Schultze 's photographs of human types, landscapes, 

 birds, and beasts is simply perfection, the photographs 

 themselves being without blemish. Where it has been 

 necessary to make and reproduce drawings in lieu of 

 photographs, these are of great beauty and accuracy, 

 and their reproduction is of a quality apparently un- 

 attainable in England. 



To summarise the principal subjects of the book. 

 The geological features of the south-west coast of Africa 

 are illustrated with many photographs, diagrams, and 

 a careful verbal description. This, though thoroughly 

 scientific, may appeal likewise to the eyes and intelli- 

 gence of the unlearned. The set of the currents, the 

 growth or diminution of the sand-bars along the coast, 

 the caves (once, perhaps, inhabited by the primitive 

 tribes of Strandloopers), the barren, rocky coast, with 

 its beaches strewn with whalebones, the rocky capes 

 with great maned sea-lions in situ, the islets, thick with 

 cormorants, gannets (literally in millions), and pen- 

 guins, are graphically depicted. An interesting record 

 of the species of whales recorded on this coast, as well 

 ;is of the principal sea fish, molluscs, and other water 

 animals, is given on pp. 30 to 41. The author sup- 

 plies the Hottentot names for all creatures or features 

 recognised by the natives. 



Though vegetation is not the strong point of this 

 desolate region, such as is found there is of great 

 interest to the botanist owing to its special adaptation 

 to arid conditions of life. The Zygophyllums (char- 

 acteristic of the northern desert from Senegal to 

 .Scinde), the soap bushes (Salsola), the Mesembrian- 

 themums, with their cactus-like flowers and thick seg- 

 mented stalks, the stumpy euphorbias, gouty, branched 

 aloes, and that extraordinary plant the Welwitschia 

 tnirabilis — almost every example of this strange desert 

 vegetation ia represented by photographs of remark- 

 able clearness and beauty. The camera also shows us 

 the large-eared, chamois-like Raphicerus antelopes, 

 perched on the jagged summits of honeycombed 

 gneiss ; vast river plains surrounded by monotonous 

 ranges of table-top mountains, but exhibiting some 

 relief from the universal desert in the acacias, Boscias, 

 Bauhinias, Baphias, Combretums, gourds, lilies, 

 rushes, and euphorbias they nourish. (One exquisite 

 picture opposite p. 604 shows an erstwhile desolate 

 stretch of the Kalahari Desert temporarily lovely with 

 thick masses of the Brunsvigia lilies.) The black- 

 NO. 2000, VOL. 77] 



backed jackal, the Chakma baboon, the ostrich, Cape 

 hartebeest, porcupine (the South African species), the 

 steenbock (Raphicerus), the white-tailed gnu, zebra, 

 springbock, giraffe, lion, and all important members 

 of the mammalian fauna, past and present, are illus- 

 trated by photographs from the living animal. From 

 p. 268 to p. 288 a great deal of information is given 

 about the existing mammalian fauna of the interior. 

 The elephant is included, though it is practically 

 extinct in this region, and only remains in the tradi- 

 tions of the Hottentots. The white rhinoceros is 

 known by name, but is now extinct. The same fate 

 has also probably reached the common black rhino- 

 ceros, and the quagga likewise only lingers in tradi- 

 tions. (The last quagga of South-West Africa appears 

 to have been killed in 1880.) The strangely archaic 

 dog form — Otocyon — with its four molar teeth on 

 either side of the lower and sometimes of the upper 

 jaw, is fairly common in Namakwaland and the 

 Kalahari Desert. Dr. Schultze observes that it never 

 goes in packs, but leads a solitary existence. The 

 brown hysena {H. briinnea) is apparently found in 

 South-West' Africa, as well as the spotted hyana, 

 but the Hottentots do not seem clearly to distinguish 

 in nomenclature between the two forms. 



The supreme interest of this work Hes in the 

 descriptions and illustrations of the Hottentot, Bush- 

 men, and Berg-damara peoples. Portraits of the 

 Herero and of the Barolong-Bechuana are also given 

 to contrast the Bantu type with the very distinct' 

 Hottentot and Bushman. There are also pictures and 

 descriptions of the Masarwa Bushmen, which would 

 suggest that these last are due to some slight inter- 

 mixture with the intruding Bantu. 



Opposite p. 420 there are two photographs of the 

 Berg-damara. This is a mountain people found in 

 the northern part of Namakwaland. They speak a 

 language which is obviously Hottentot, but in physical 

 type they are entirely unlike the Hottentot, except 

 that both are widely divergent forms of the negro 

 species. The Berg-damaras are a tall people com- 

 pared to the Hottentots, and hairy about the body, 

 with abundant head hair, and, in the males, full beard 

 and moustache. In shape of head and degree of prog- 

 nathism they exhibit a good deal of variety. There 

 are old photographs in the possession of the Royal 

 Geographical Society (dating from the Palgrave ex- 

 pedition of 1873) which exhibit types of Berg-damara 

 of quite a timian aspect, strongly reminiscent of the 

 most primitive tribes of forest negroes in the Congo 

 basin. On the other hand, the Berg-damara people 

 seen by the writer of this review in South-West Africa 

 in 1882, and illustrated in this book, represent a fairly 

 good-looking type of Bantu negro, and might be 

 matched easily among the Bantu tribes of the southern 

 and eastern Congo basin. 



Any doubt as to the ape-like faces of the pure-blood 

 Bushmen is dispelled by a glance at the pictures oppo- 

 site p. 322. On the other hand, some of the 

 Hottentot types herein illustrated suggest what is no 

 doubt the obvious solution of their origin — an ancient 

 hybrid between the pure Bushman stock and some 

 Nilotic negro race in the east of .\frica, with a dash 



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