AFRICA. 77 
prodigioufly, fo that (he can no longer keep 
back her milk, but fuffers it to flow in abun- 
dance. 
If a calf happens to die, they preferve Its 
{kin very carefully, and with much addrefs 
deceive the Ample inftindt of nature. They 
wrap it round the body of another calf ; and, 
feduced by this artifice, the mother conti- 
nues to yield her milk : but this llratagem 
feldom fucceeds beyond the fpace of a month. 
It is a real lofs to a proprietor when a calf 
dies ; for, if it lives, the cow never ceafes to 
give milk till within fix weeks of her bring- 
ing forth again. 
The African cows are abfolutely the fame 
fpecies as thofe of Europe, and differ in no 
circumfl:ance whatever; but, according as the 
diflferent cantons are good or bad, they ap- 
pear fatter or leaner. In general they give 
very little milk; thofe which furnifli three 
or four pints a day are extraordinary pheno- 
mena. It appears that milk, one of the moll 
agreeable gifts of nature, becomes fcarcer, 
and dries up almofl: entirely, the more one 
approaches the warmeft countries. I re« 
member that at Surinam, not far from the 
Line, a cow which gave three or four pints 
7 wai 
