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ralists amongst them. It is a formidable animal, its 
foreparts being very similar to those of a lion. Its 
skin is black, and it has a long shaggy mane and 
beard, a small head, fiery eyes, a capacious forehead, 
and very large horns, the points of which are wide 
enough apart for three men to sit between them. 
Behind the shoulders grows a bunch almost as large 
as that of a camel, covered with hair. In a wild 
state they are very furious; the natives take them 
in pits which they cover with boughs of trees. All 
these species grow very large in Madagascar, and 
are sometimes found to weigh eight hundred pounds. 
Their flesh is excellent beef; and a plentiful supply, 
at a reasonable rate, can always be obtained by our 
East-India ships whenever they touch at the island. 
Besides these, some travellers have mentioned the 
buffalo as being found at Madagascar; but as that 
animal has often been confounded with the bison, and 
as Flacourt does not mention it, we may suppose it 
does not exist there. 
The sheep and goats are plentiful: the former 
are similar to those found at the Cape of Good 
Hope, having large flat tails, weighing from twenty 
to thirty pounds. The mutton is excellent, and 
Rochon affirms that the wool is of a good quality; 
but on this head we are sceptical, as other travellers 
assure us that it partakes more of the nature of hair 
than wool, which is generally the case in tropical 
countries. It is found that in warm climates, and 
on luxuriant soils, the wool of any sheep degenerates, 
