SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
263 
ter, and having a tougher hide, than the female, Is always fe- 
leded from the herd and hunted down ; the confequence of 
which is, that numbers of herds are now met with confifting of 
females only. They are very fubjedt alfo to a cutaneous dif- 
eafe that makes great havoc among the bovine tribe. It is 
called by the farmers the brandt fickte^ or burning difeafe. It 
generally makes its appearance among the cattle towards the end 
of the rainy feafon. The hair begins to fall off ; the fkin is 
covered with fcurf and fcabs ; the joints become ftiff, and the 
animal languifhes, confumes, and dies. All the antelopes are 
more or lefs fubje£l to it, but chiefly fo the gnoo, the hartebeeft, 
and the eland, thefe approaching neareft to the nature of the 
ox. The plains were ftrewed with the fkeletons of thefe and 
other animals that had fallen by the difeafe. The eland of the 
Cape is the oreas of the Syjiema Natura^ and the Indian antelope 
of Pennant. The male of one we fhot meafured ten feet and 
a half in length, and fix feet and a half in height. 
Upon the plains of the Sea-Cow river were fpringboks in 
countlefs troops, hartebeefts, and bonteboks. The laft antelope 
is marked the fame as the fcrtpta of the Sjftema Natures ; but 
the brown color is darker and the animal confiderably fmaller 
than the bontebok of Zwellendam. Quachas from fifty to a 
hundred in a troop were hourly feen. The fmaller kinds of 
game were alfo very plentiful. Hares were continually among 
the horfes' feet. Of this animal are four known fpecies in or 
near the colony ; the common hare, the Cape hare, the moun- 
tain hare, and the red-rumped hare. Of the laft, the exterior 
part 
