98 



CHARLES DARWIN 



coast, without more than occasionally half an hour's delay 

 in cutting down bushes, gives, perhaps, a more definite notion 

 of the scantiness of the vegetation. Now, if we look to the 

 animals inhabiting these wide plains, we shall find their 

 numbers extraordinarily great, and their bulk immense. We 

 must enumerate the elephant, three species of rhinoceros, 

 and probably, according to Dr. Smith, two others, the hippo- 

 potamus, the giraffe, the bos caffer— as large as a full-grown 

 bull, and the elan— but little less, two zebras, and the quac- 

 cha, two gnus, and several antelopes even larger than these 

 latter animals. It may be supposed that although the spe- 

 cies are numerous, the individuals of each kind are few. 

 By the kindness of Dr. Smith, I am enabled to show that 

 the case is very different. He informs me, that in lat. 24 0 , 

 in one day's march with the bullock- waggons, he saw, with- 

 out wandering to any great distance on either side, between 

 one hundred and one hundred and fifty rhinoceroses, which 

 belonged to three species : the same day he saw several herds 

 of giraffes, amounting together to nearly a hundred; and 

 that although no elephant was observed, yet they are found 

 in this district. At the distance of a little more than one 

 hour's march from their place of encampment on the pre- 

 vious night, his party actually killed at one spot eight hippo- 

 potamuses, and saw many more. In this same river there 

 were likewise crocodiles. Of course it was a case quite ex- 

 traordinary, to see so many great animals crowded together, 

 but it evidently proves that they must exist in great num- 

 bers. Dr. Smith describes the country passed through that 

 day, as " being thinly covered with grass, and bushes about 

 four feet high, and still more thinly with mimosa-trees." 

 The waggons were not prevented travelling in a nearly 

 straight line. 



Besides these large animals, every one the least ac- 

 quainted with the natural history of the Cape, has read of 

 the herds of antelopes, which can be compared only with the 

 flocks of migratory birds. The numbers indeed of the lion, 

 panther, and hyaena, and the multitude of birds of prey, 

 plainly speak of the abundance of the smaller quadrupeds: 

 one evening seven lions were counted at the same time prowl- 

 ing round Dr. Smith's encampment. As this able naturalist 



