extent o f country. Notwithftanding the miferable appearance
o f the plains, the bullocks were large and in excellent condition,
and the iheep were in tolerable good order; but the
broad-tailed breed of the Cape leems to be of a very inferior
kind to thofe of Siberia and oriental Tartary: they are long-
Iegged> fmall in the body, remarkably thin in the fore quarters
and acrofs the ribs : they have very little inteftine or net fa t;
the whole of this feems to be colleded upon the hind part of
the thigh and upon the ta il: this is fhort, broad, flat, naked- on
the under fide, and weighs in general about five or fix pounds:
fometimes it exceeds a dozen pounds in weight • when
melted it retains the confiftence of fat vegetable oils, and in this
ilate it is frequently uied as a fubftitute for butter, and for making
foap by boiling it with the lie of the afhes o f the falfola.
The iheep o f the Cape are marked with every ihade of color ;
fome are black, fome brown, and others bay; but the greateft
number are fpotted : their necks are fmall and extended, and
their ears long and pendulous: they weigh from fixty to
feventy pounds each when taken from their pafture ; but on
their arrival at the Cape are reduced to about forty; and they
are fold to the butchers who colled them upon the fpot for fix
or eight ihillings a-piece. The price of a bullock is about
twelve rixdollars, or forty-eight ihillings, and the average
weight is about four hundred pounds. The graziers feldom
kill an ox for their own confumption, unlefs it be to lay up in
fait. Their general fare is mutton and goats’ flefh. The African
goat is the fineft o f the fpecies I ever faw, and fo wonderfully
prolific that it is confidered as the moil: profitable animal;
for home confumption, that can be kept. They go twenty
weeks
weeks with young, and feldom have lefs than two at a birth,
very commonly three, and frequently four. The fleih, though
much inferior to mutton, is thought quite good enough for the
Hottentots in the fervice of the farmer ; and the choice pieces,
well foaked in the fat of iheep’s tails, are ferved upon his own
table.
The wool of the iheep is little better than a ftrong frizzled
hair, o f which they make no kind of ufe except for ftuifing
cuihions or matreffes. They neither waih nor ihear their
iheep, but fuffer the wool to drop off on its own accord, which
it ufually does in the months of September and Odober. The
ikins are ufed only as clothing for the Hottentots, aprons for
their children, bags for holding various articles, and other houfe-
hold purpofes.
A hog is a fpecies of animal fcarcely known in the diftrid.
No reafon but that of indolence can be afligned for the want of
it. To feed hogs there would be a neceflity of planting, and to
this they feem to have a mortal antipathy. It is great exertion
to throw a little corn into the ground for their own bread.
Many are not at the trouble even of doing this, but prefer to
make a journey of feveral days to exchange their cattle for what
corn they may ftand in need of. Potatoes they have a diilike
to ; and according to their report, the Hottentots, whofe fto-
machs are not very nice, refufe to eat them. It is curious
enough that this poifonous root has been generally rejeded at
firft by moft nations. Strong prejudices exifted againft it when
firft it was introduced into England, where the privation o f it
now