SOUTHERN AFRICA. 323 
most valuable and productive exports that the settlement is 
capable of I'urnishing. The mutton of the Cape sheep is also 
of a very inferior quality, being coarse and void of flavour; 
and they have little intestine or net fat, nor, indeed, any 
other except what is accumulated on the tail, which is of 
too oleaginous a nature to be employed alone as tallow. In 
every respect, therefore, the mixed Spanish breed is prefer- 
able to that which, at present, constitutes the numerous 
flocks of the greater part of the farmers. I understand that 
the Dutch government is at this moment paying a very marked 
attention to the improvement of the breed of sheep in the 
colony, and that they have adopted such regulations as are 
likely, in the course of a few years, to supplant the broad- 
tailed species with the infinitely more valuable cross with the 
Spanish sheep. 
HIDES AND SKINS. 
The exportation of these articles, both dried and salted 
raw, has been increased to a very considerable degree under 
the British Government, and the price has consequently aug- 
mented in proportion to the demand for them. Ox hides, 
which formerly might be purchased at half a dollar a-piece, 
rose to two dollars. They are subject, on exportation, to a 
duty of threepence-halfpenny a-piece. The quantity ex- 
ported may amount to between 2000 and 3000 annually. 
Those that are taken oft' the cattle, killed in the country, are 
employed by the farmers in various uses, but principally as 
harness for their waggons, and as thongs to supply the place 
of cordage. The skins of sheep, that are killed in the country, 
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