177**
November.
S p a r r m a n and the learned Dr. T h u n b e r g * have gathered
above a thoufand fpecies entirely unknown before. The
animal kingdom is proportionably rich in the variety of
its productions. The greateft quadrupeds, the elephant,
the rhinoceros, and the giraffe or camelopard, inhabit this
extremity of Africa; the two firft were formerly found within
fifty miles of the Cape, but have been fo much purfued
and hunted, that they are rarely feen at prefent within
many days- journey. The rhinoceros particularly is fa
fcarce, that the government have illued an order to prevent
its being entirely extirpated. The hippopotamus,
there called a fea-cow, which formerly ufed to come as far
as Saldanha bay, is likewife fo. feldom feen at prefent,
that none muft be killed within a confiderable diftance of
the Cape. Its meat is eaten here, and reckoned a great
dainty: the tafte in my opinion is that of coarfe beef, but
the fat rather refembles marrow. This animal feeds entirely
on vegetables, and we were told can only dive a)
* An eminent difcipfc o f Linne, who after, arranging: and-, claffing D r .
Burmann’s herbals at Leyden, ftudied botany during three years at the Cape,,
and having made immenfe acquifitions to fcience, was fent to Batavia, at the-
expence of the Dutch Eaft-India, company,, in order to-proceed to Japan in
J7 7 5 * T h e fame gentleman was fo obliging, at D r , Sparrman’s requeft, to-
take with him, on one of his excurfions, Francis Maflon, employed in the Royal
garden at Kew, who had been fent-to the Cape on board the Refolution-j in order
to colle£t live plants and feeds for the botanical garden. Under Dr. Thunberg’s.
kind guidance, who pointed out to him what was worthy o f notice, he hasmade
and brought home an ample collection.
fhort
Ihort fpace, not exceeding thirty yards. The wild buffalo Nov'” ’BtR
is another huge quadruped, which now inhabits the more
remote fettlements of the Cape, and is faid to have prodigious
ftrength and ferocity. Its horns refembles thofe of
rhe American wild ox - jfbifon), and are reprefented in the
ixth vol. of M. de Buffon’s Natural Hiftory. They often
attack the farmers travelling in the country, and kill
many of their cattle, which they trample upon with their
feet. Dr. Thunberg loft his horfes in one of thefe rencounters,
and his fellow-traveller, the Dutch company’s
gardener, narrowly efcaped between two trees. A young
one, about three years old, belonging to the fecond governor,
was put before a waggon, with fix tame oxen, but
his ftrength was fuch that they could not move him out
of his place *. Befides this there is another fpecies of
wild ox, called by the natives gnoo, which has flender
horns, a mane, and brufhes of hair on the nofe and wattles,
and in the flender make of its limbs feems to refem-
ble an horfe or an antelope, more than its cogeneric animals.
This fpecies we have drawn and defcribed, and it
has been brought over to the menagerie of the Prince of
Orange. Africa has always been known as the country of
* W e fhould have gone into the country to fee this animal, but we only
beard of it the day before our departure. T h is feems to be the animal mentioned
by de Manet, Nouvelle Hiftoire de l ’Afrique Fran561 fe, tome ii. p. 129.
M 2 the