THE EIAND. — THK SCAVENGER BEETLE. 35 



creatures of Africa in England. The eland, which is the 

 most magnificent of all antelopes, would grace the parks 

 of our nobility more than deer. This animal, from the 

 excellence of its flesh, would be appropriate to our own 

 country ; and as there is also a splendid esculent frog 

 nearly as large as a chicken, it would no doubt tend to 

 perpetuate the present alliance, if we made a gift of that 

 to France. 



The scavenger beetle is one of the most useful of all 

 insects, as it effectually answers the objects indicated by 

 the name. Where they abound, as at Kuruman, the vil- 

 lages are sweet and clean, for no sooner ate animal excre- 

 tions dropped than, attracted by the scent, the scavengers 

 are heard coming booming up the. wind. They roll away 

 the droppings of cattle at once, in round pieces often as 

 large as billiard-balls ; and when they reach a place proper 

 by its softness for the deposit of their eggs, and the safety 

 of their young, they dig the soil out from beneath the ball, 

 till they have quite let it down and covered it : they then 

 lay their eggs within the mass. While the larvae are grow- 

 ing, they devour the inside of the ball before coming above 

 ground to begin the world for themselves. The beetles 

 with their gigantic balls look like Atlas with the world on 

 his back ; only they go backwards, and, with their heads 

 down, push with the hind legs, as if a boy should roll a 

 snow-ball with his legs, while standing on his head. As we 

 recommend the eland to John Bull, and the gigantic frog to 

 France, we can confidently recommend this beetle to the 

 dirty Italian towns, and our own Sanitary Commissioners. 



In trying to benefit the tribes living under the Boers of 

 the Cashan Mountains, I twice performed a journey of 

 about three hundred miles to the eastward of Kolobeng. 

 Sechele had become so obnoxious to the Boers, that, though 

 anxious to accompany me in my journey, he dared not trust 

 himself among them. This did not arise from the crime of 

 cattle-stealing ; for that crime, so common among the 

 Carfres, was never charged against his tribe, nor, indeed, 

 against any Bechuana tribe. It is, in fact, unknown in 

 the country, except during actual warfare. His indepen- 

 dence and love of the English were his only faults. In my 

 last journey there, of about two hundred miles, on parting 

 at the river Marikwe he gave me two servants, " to be," as 

 he said, " his arms to serve me," and expressed regret that 

 he could not come himself. " Suppose we went north, * 



