It. 





Ch. X.] 



AND ITS ASSOCIATES 



191 



■ 



fil 



* 



ey 





more 



"had 

 Had 



ran>- 



ttli'e 



eems 



Asia 



id, at 

 mate 

 ■ ele- 



orous 



mfor 

 nvin, 



froffl 

 rhere 



ants 



a 



; the 

 the 



o 



e re- 



t> f 









quadrupeds. We there meet with an elephant, five species 

 of rhinoceros, a hippopotamus, a giraffe, the bos caffer, the 

 elan, two zebras, the quagga, two gnus, and several antelopes. 

 Nor must we suppose that, while the species are numerous, 

 the individuals of each kind are few. Dr. Andrew Smith 

 saw in one day's march, in lat. 24° S., without wandering to 

 any great distance on either side, about 150 rhinoceroses, 

 with several herds of giraffes, and his party had killed, on the 

 previous night, eight hippopotamuses. Yet the country 

 which they inhabited was thinly covered with grass and 

 bushes about four feet high, and still more thinly with 

 mosa-trees, so that the waggons of the travellers were not 



mi 



from 



anim 



in this region, it is suggested that the underwood, of which 

 their food chiefly consists, may contain much nutriment in a 

 small bulk, and also that the vegetation has a rapid growth ; 

 for no sooner is a part consumed, than its place, says Dr. 

 Smith, is supplied by a fresh stock. Nevertheless, after 

 making every allowance for this successive production and 

 consumption, it is clear, from the facts above cited, that the 

 quantity of food required by the larger herbivora is much less 

 than we have usually imagined. Mr. Darwin conceives that 

 the amount of vegetation supported at any one time by Great 

 Britain may exceed, in a tenfold ratio, the quantity existing 

 on an equal area in the interior parts of Southern Africa. 



It is remarked, 



mor 



in illustration of the small con- 



nection discoverable between abundance of food and the 

 magnitude of indigenous mammalia, that while in the desert 

 part of Southern Africa there are so many huge animals, 

 there is not, in Brazil, where the splendour and exuberance 

 of the vegetation are unrivalled, a single wild quadruped of 

 the largest size. 



It would doubtless be impossible for herds of mammoths 

 and rhinoceroses to subsist, at present, throughout the year, 

 even in the southern part of Siberia, covered as it is with 

 snow during winter ; but there is no difficulty in supposing a 



* Darwin, Journal of Travels in S. of H.M.S. Beagle, p. 98. 2nd ed., Lon- 

 America, &c, 1832-1836, in Voyage don, 1845, p. 86. 



