72 Account of the Fish River Bush, South Africa. 



provinces within our area. Even among many of the species 

 that are widely and almost universally spread throughout our 

 seas, we find the frequency of their occurrence diminishing 

 oneway or other according to their origin. As a general 

 rule, the northern influence prevails over the southern in the 

 British fauna, and gives greater peculiarities to the zoology 

 of the Scottish than to that of the English seas. The cen- 

 tral portion of our area, the Irish Sea, is a sort of neutral 

 ground, from which several forms are absent that are to be 

 found both to the south and to the north of it. But such 

 types, mostly of southern origin, can be traced in the course 

 of their migration along the Atlantic coasts of Ireland, where 

 their progress northwards has been favoured by the genial 

 influence of warm currents. The most unproductive district 

 is the southern half of the eastern coast. — (Forbes and 

 Hartley' 8 History of the British Mollusca. Introduction, 

 p. xiv.) 



An Account of the Fish River Bush, South Africa ; with a 

 Description of the Quadrupeds that inhabit it. By Mr 

 W. Black, Staff Assistant-Surgeon. Communicated by 

 the Author. 



The Great Fish River Bush would be better understood if 

 denominated Jungle, according to Indian nomenclature, the 

 meaning of which is well appreciated, from the numerous 

 descriptions we possess of that country. The word Bush is, 

 as it were, conventional only in this colony ; and what is 

 generally taken as its meaning at home is inapplicable here. 

 A sheep refers to a single member of the sheep, so a bush sig- 

 nifies a part of the Bush. The extent of the colonial Bush can- 

 not be estimated by any conception of one who is a stranger 

 to its features. A small clump of bush gives one no crite- 

 rion to judge of its interminable extent, just as finity can give 

 almost no conception of infinity. A distinguished military 

 officer, at the commencement of the '35 war, even on his ar- 

 rival at Graham's Town, could not understand the meaning of 

 the report, that " the Caffrcs were in the Fish River Bush," 



