Chap. XXYIH. WHEEE FOOD MOST ABUNDANT. 
565 
lope, with a more reddish colour. A great difference in size 
prevails also among domestic animals; but the influence of locality 
on them is not so well marked. The cattle of the Batoka, for 
instance, are exceedingly small and very beautiful, possessing 
generally great breadth between the eyes and a very playful 
disposition. They are much smaller than the aboriginal cattle 
in the south; but it must be added that those of the Barotse 
valley, in the same latitudes as the Batoka, are large. The breed 
may have come from the west, as the cattle within the influence 
of the sea am, as at Little Fish Bay, Benguela, Ambriz, and along 
that coast, are very large. Those found at Lake Ngami, with large 
horns and standing 6 feet high, probably come from the same 
quarter. The goats are also small, and domestic fowls throughout 
this country are of a very small size, and even dogs, except where 
the inhabitants have had an opportunity of improving the breed 
by importation from the Portuguese. As the Barotse cattle are an 
exception to this general rule, so are the Barotse dogs, for they 
are large savage-looking animals, though in reality very cow^ardly. 
It is a nttle remarkable, that a decrease in size should occur where 
food is the most abundant; but tropical chmates seem imfavourable 
for the full development of either animals or man. It is not from 
want of care in the breeding, for the natives always choose the 
larger and stronger males for stock, and the same arrangement 
prevails in natm^e, for it is only by overcoming their weaker rivals, 
that the wild males obtain possession of the herd. Invariably they 
show the scars received in battle. The elephant we killed yester¬ 
day had an umbilical hernia as large as a child’s head, probably 
caused by the charge of a rival. The cow showed scars received 
from men; two of the wounds in her side were still unhealed, and 
there was an orifice six inches long and open m her proboscis, and, 
as it was about a foot from the point, it must have interfered with 
her power of liftiug water. 
In estimatiug the amount of food necessary for these and other 
large animals, sufficient attention has not been paid to the kinds 
chosen. The elephant, for iustance, is a most dainty feeder, and 
particularly fond of certain sweet-tasted trees and fruits. He 
chooses the mohonono, the mimosa, and other trees which con¬ 
tain much saccharine matter, mucilage, and gum. He may be 
seen putting his head to a lofty palmyra, and swaying it to and fro 
