TRAVELS IN 
extent of country. Notwithftanding the miferable appearance 
of the plains, the bullocks wer-e large and in excellent condi- 
tion, and the fheep were in tolerable good order ; but the 
broad-tailed breed of the Cape feems to be of a very inferior 
kind to thofe of Siberia and oriental Tartary : they are long- 
legged, fmall in the body, remarkably thin in the fore quarters 
and acrofs the ribs : they have very little inteftine or net fat; 
the whole of this feems to be collected upon the hind part of 
the thigh and upon the tail : this is fhort, broad, flat, naked on 
the under fide, and weighs in general about five or fix pounds : 
fometimes it exceeds a dozen pounds in weight : w^hen 
melted it retains the confiftence of fat vegetable oils, and in this 
ftate it is frequently ufed as a fubftitute for butter, and for mak- 
ing foap by boiling it with the lie of the afhes of the falfola. 
The fheep of the Cape are marked with every fliade of color ; 
fome are black, fome brown, and others bay ; but the greateft 
number are fpotted : their necks are fmall and extended, and 
their ears long and pendulous : they w^eigh from fixty to 
feventy pounds each when taken from their pafture ; but on 
their arrival at the Cape are reduced to about forty; and they 
are fold to the butchers who colledl them upon the fpot for fix 
or eight fhillings a-piece. The price of a bullock is about 
twelve rixdollars, or forty-eight fhillings, and the average 
•weight is about four hundred pounds. The graziers feldom 
kill an ox for their own confumption, unlefs it be to lay up in 
fait. Their general fare is mutton and goats' flefh. The Afri- 
can goat is the fineft of the fpecies I ever faw, and fo wonder- 
fully prolific that it is confidered as the moft profitable animal, 
for home confumption, that can be kept. They go twenty 
weeks 
