THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 



99 



remarked to me, the carnage each day in Southern Africa 

 must indeed be terrific ! I confess it is truly surprising how 

 such a number of animals can find support in a country 

 producing so little food. The larger quadrupeds no doubt 

 roam over wide tracts in search of it ; and their food chiefly 

 consists of underwood, which probably contains much nutri- 

 ment in a small bulk. Dr. Smith also informs me that the 

 vegetation has a rapid growth ; no sooner is a part consumed, 

 than its place is supplied by a fresh stock. There can be 

 no doubt, however, that our ideas respecting the apparent 

 amount of food necessary for the support of large quadru- 

 peds are much exaggerated : it should have been remembered 

 that the camel, an animal of no mean bulk, has always been 

 considered as the emblem of the desert. 



The belief that where large quadrupeds exist, the vegeta- 

 tion must necessarily be luxuriant, is the more remarkable,, 

 because the converse is far from true. Mr. Burchell observed 

 to me that when entering Brazil, nothing struck him more 

 forcibly than the splendour of the South American vegeta- 

 tion contrasted with that of South Africa, together with 

 the absence of all large quadrupeds. In his Travels, 6 he has 

 suggested that the comparison of the respective weights (if 

 there were sufficient data) of an equal number of the largest 

 herbivorous quadrupeds of each country would be extremely 

 curious. If we take on the one side, the elephant, 7 hippo- 

 potamus, giraffe, bos caffer, elan, certainly three, and prob- 

 ably five species of rhinoceros; and on the American side, 

 two tapirs, the guanaco, three deer, the vicuna, peccari, capy- 

 bara (after which we must choose from the monkeys to 

 complete the number), and then place these two groups 



8 Travels in the Interior of South Africa, vol. ii. p. 207. 



7 The elephant which was killed at Exeter Change was estimated (being 

 partly weighed) at five tons and a half. The elephant actress, as I was 

 informed, weighed one ton less; so that we may take five as the average of 

 a full-grown elephant. I was told at the Surrey Gardens, that a hippopot- 

 amus which was sent to England cut up=into pieces was estimated at three 

 tons and a half; we will call it three. From these premises we may give 

 three tons and a half to each of the five rhinoceroses; perhaps a ton to the 

 giraffe, and half to the bos caffer as well as to the elan (a large ox weighs 

 from 1200 to 1500 pounds). This will give an average (from the above 

 estimates) of 2.7 of a ton for the ten largest herbivorous animals of South- 

 ern Africa. In South America, allowing 1200 pounds for the two tapirs 

 together, 530 for the guanaco and vicuna, 500 for three deer, 300 for the 

 capybara, peccari, and a monkey, we shall have an average of 250 pounds, 

 which I believe is overstating the result. The ratio will therefore be as 6048 

 to 250, or 24 to 1, for the ten largest animals from the two continents. 



