FOOD OF LARGE QUADRUPEDS 
9i 
v 
thinly covered with grass, and bushes about four feet high, and 
still more thinly with mimosa-trees.” The waggons were not 
prevented travelling in a nearly straight line. 
Besides these large animals, every one the least acquainted 
with the natural history of the Cape has read of the herds of 
antelopes, which can be compared only with the flocks of 
migratory birds. The numbers indeed of the lion, panther, and 
hyaena, and the multitude of birds of prey, plainly speak of the 
abundance of the smaller quadrupeds : one evening seven lions 
were counted at the same time prowling round Dr. Smith’s 
encampment. As this able naturalist remarked to me, the 
carnage each day in Southern Africa must indeed be terrific ! 
I confess it is truly surprising how such a number of animals 
can find support in a country producing so little food. The 
larger quadrupeds no doubt roam over wide tracts in search of 
it ; and their food chiefly consists of underwood, which probably 
contains much nutriment in a small bulk. Dr. Smith also 
informs me that the vegetation has a rapid growth ; no sooner 
is a part consumed, than its place is supplied by a fresh stock. 
There can be no doubt, however, that our ideas respecting the 
apparent amount of food necessary for the support of large 
quadrupeds are much exaggerated : it should have been 
remembered that the camel, an animal of no mean bulk, has 
always been considered as the emblem of the desert. 
The belief that where large quadrupeds exist, the vegetation 
must necessarily be luxuriant, is the more remarkable, because 
the converse is far from true. Mr. Burchell observed to me 
that when entering Brazil, nothing struck him more forcibly 
than the splendour of the South American vegetation contrasted 
with that of South Africa, together with the absence of all 
large quadrupeds. In his Travels} he has suggested that the 
comparison of the respective weights (if there were sufficient 
data) of an equal number of the largest herbivorous quadrupeds 
of each country would be extremely curious. If we take on 
the one side the elephant," hippopotamus, giraffe, bos caffer, 
1 Travels in the Interior of South Africa , vol. ii. p. 207. 
2 The elephant which was killed at Exeter Change was estimated (being partly- 
weighed) at five tons and a half. The elephant actress, as I was informed, weighed 
one ton less ; so that we may take five as the average of a full-grown elephant. I 
was told at the Surrey Gardens, that a hippopotamus which was sent to England cut 
up into pieces was estimated at three tons and a half ; we will call it three. From 
