60 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTEAL AFRICA. 



lowest valuation of a cow. The cattle is never stalled 

 or grain-fed, and the udder is little distended ; the pro- 

 duce is about one quarter that of a civilised cow, and 

 the animals give milk only during the few first months 

 after calving. The "tulchan" of Tibet is apparently 

 unknown in Central Africa ; but the people are not 

 wanting in barbarous contrivances to persuade a stub- 

 born animal to yield her produce. 



The fauna appear rare upon the borders of the 

 Tanganyika : all men are hunters ; every human being 

 loves animal food, from white ants to elephants ; the 

 tzetze was found there, and probably the luxuriance of 

 the vegetation, in conjunction with the extreme humi- 

 dity, tends to diminish species and individuals. Herds 

 of elephants exist in the bamboo-jungles which surround 

 the sea, but the heaps of ivory sold in the markets of 

 Ujiji are collected from an area containing thousands of 

 square miles. Hippopotami and crocodiles are common 

 in the waters, wild buffaloes in the plains. The hyaenas 

 are bold thieves, and the half -wild " Pariah-dogs " that 

 slink about the villages are little inferior as depredators. 

 The people sometimes make pets of them, leading them 

 about with cords; but they do not object to see them 

 shot after a raid upon the Arab's meat, butter, or milk. 

 These animals are rarely heard to bark ; they leave 

 noise to the village cocks. The huts are as usual haunted 

 by the grey and the musk-rat. Of birds there is a fine 

 fish-eagle, about the size of a domestic cock, with snowy 

 head and shoulders relieving a sombre chocolate plume : 

 he sits majestically watching his prey upon the tall trees 

 overhanging the waves of the Tanganyika. A larus, or 

 sea-gull, with reddish legs, lives in small colonies upon 

 this lake. At the end of the monsoon in 1858 these birds 

 were seen to collect in troops upon the sands, as they 



