56 
ANIMALS OF Till DE8KHT. 
phnnt, the most sagacious, floos the sound of firo-arms 
first; tho gnu and ostrich, tho most wary and tho most 
stupid, last Tho first emigrants found tho Hottentots in 
possession of prodigious herds of fine cattle, but no horses, 
asses, or camels. Tho original cattlo, which may still bo 
seen in somo parts of tho frontier, must havo been brought 
south from tho north-northeast, for from this point the 
natives universally ascribe their original migration. They 
brought cattlo, sheep, goats, and dogs : why not tho horse, 
tho delight of savage hordes ? Horses thrive well in the 
Cape Colony when imported. Naturalists point out cer- 
tain mountain-ranges as limiting tho habitat of certain 
classes of animals; but thoro is no Cordillera in Africa to 
answer that purpose, there being uo visible barrier between 
the northeastern Arabs and tho Hottentot tribes to prevent 
tho different hordes, as they felt their way southward, 
from indulging their taste for tho possession of this noble 
animal. 
1 am hero led to notice an invisible barrier, moro insur- 
mountable than mountain-ranges, but which is not opposed 
to tho southern progress of cattlo, goats, and sheep. Tho 
tsetse would provo a barrier only until its woll-defined 
habitat was known ; but tho disoaso passing under the 
term of horso-sickness ( peripneumonia ) exists in such viru- 
lonco over noarly seven dogroos of latitudo that no procau- 
tion would bo sufficient to savo these animals. Tho horso 
is so liablo to this disease, that only by groat care in stabling 
can ho bo kept anywhoro between 20° and 27° S. during 
tho time between December and April. Tho winter, begin- 
ning in tho latter month, is tho only period in which Eng- 
lishmen can hunt on horseback, and they are in dangor of 
losing all their studs somo months boforo December. To 
this disoaso tho horso is especially exposed, and it is almost 
always fatal Ono attack, howovor, seems to socuro im- 
munity from a second. Cattlo, too, are subject to it, but 
only at intervals of a fow, sometimes many, yoars; but it 
never raakos a cloan swoop of tho whole cattle of a village, 
