SOUTHERN AFRICA. 67 
each occupies a vast extent of country. Notwithstanding the 
barren aspect of tlie plains, the bullocks were large and in 
excellent condition, and the sheep were in tolerable good 
order; but thj broad-tailed breed of Southern Africa seems 
to be of a A'ery inferior kind to those of Siberia and oriental 
Tartarj : they are long-legged, small in the body, remarkably 
thin in the fore quarters and across the ribs : have very little 
intestine or net fat ; the whole of this animal substance being 
collected upon the hind part of the thigh, but particularly on 
the tail, which is short, broad, fiat, naked on the under side, 
and seldom less in weight than five or six pounds : sometimes 
more than a dozen pounds ; when melted, it retains the con- 
sistence of fat vegetable oils, and in this state it is frequently 
used as a substitute for butter, and for making soap by boil- 
ing it with the lie of the ashes of the salsola. This species of 
the sheep is marked with every tint of color; some are black, 
some brown, and others bay ; but the greatest number are 
spotted : their necks are small and extended, and their ears 
long and pendulous : they weigh from sixty to seventy pounds 
each when taken from their pasture ; but on their arrival at 
the Cape are reduced to about forty ; and they are sold to 
the butchers who collect them upon the spot for six or eight 
shillings a-piece. The annexed is a very accurate portrait of 
a South African sheep. The price of a bullock is about twelve 
rixdollars, or forty-eight shillings, and the average weight is 
about four hundred pounds. The graziers seldom kill an ox 
for their own consumption, unless it be to lay up in salt. 
Their general fare is mutton and goats' flesh. The African 
goat is the finest of the species I ever saw, and so wonder- 
fully prolific that it is considered as the most profitable ani- 
