SOUTHERN AFRICA. 8i 
Nofurce) is the strongest and the fiercest of tlie bovine genus. 
Nature seems to have designed him as a model for producing 
extraordinary powers. The horns at the base are each twelve 
or thirteen inches broad, and arc separated only by a narrow 
channel, which fills up with age, and gives to the animal a 
forehead completely covered with a rugged mass of horn as 
hard as rock. From the base they diverge backwards, and 
are incurved towards the points, wdiich are generally distant 
from each other about three feet. About the height of a 
common-sized ox, the African buffalo is at least twice its 
bulk. The fibres of its muscles are like so many bundles of 
cords, and they are covered with a hide little inferior in 
strength and thickness to that of the rhinosceros. It is pre- 
ferred by the peasantry to the skin of all other animals for 
cutting into thongs to be used as traces and harness for their 
carts and waggons. The flesh is too coarse-grained to be 
good ; yet tlie farmers generally salt it up as food for their 
Hottentots. It is curious enough that the teeth of this species 
of buffalo should at all times be so perfectly loose in the 
sockets as to rattle ar.d shake in its head. 
The lion frecjuently measures his strength witli tl^e bufialo, 
and al\va3's gains the advantage. This, however, he is said to 
accomplish by stratagem, being afraid to attack him on the 
open plain. He lies waiting in ambush till a convenient op- 
portunity offers for springing upon the bulfalo, and fixing his 
fangs in his throat ; then striking his paw into the animal's 
face, he twists round the head and pins him to the ground 
by the horns, holding him in that situation till he expires 
from loss of blood. Such a battle would furnish a grand sub- 
ject for the powers of a masterly pencil. 
VOL. I. M 
