are generally diftant from each other about three feet. About
the height of a common-fized ox, the African buffalo is at leali
twice its bulk. The fibres of its mufcles t aré liké fomány
bundles o f cords, and they are covered with a hide little inferior
in ftrength and thicknefs to that of the rhinofceros It is preferred
by the peafantry to the fkin o f all other animals for cutting
into thongs to be ufed as traces and harñefs for their carts
and waggons. ' The fleih is too coarfe-grained to be good yet
the farmers generally fait it up às food for their Hottentots. It
is curious enough that the teeth o f this fpecies of buffalo ihould
at all times be fo perfectly loofe in the fockets as to rattle and
lhake in its head.
, The lion frequently méáfures his ftrength with the buffalo,
and always gains the advantage. This, however, he is'faidtp
accomplish by ftratagem, being afraid to attack him on the'open
plain. He lies waiting inambuih till a convenient opportunity
offers for fpringing upon the buffalo, and fixing his fangs in his
throat; then Striking his paw into the animal’s face, hetwifts
round the head and pins him to the ground by the horns, holding
him in that fituation till he expirés fròm lofs of blood.
Such a battle would furnifh a grand fubjeét for the powers of a
inafterly pencil.
I f the Dutch have been too indolent to domefticate the qua-
cha and the zebra, it is léfs a matter of aftoniihment that no attempts
have been made on' thé fierce and powerful buffalo.
Any othernàtion, poffeffing the Gape for:one hundred and fifty
years, would certainly have effected it. ' A male, i f taken very
young,
young, and fuffered to run among the cattle, would in all probability
have intercourfe with the cows ; at leaft the other fpecies
of thé bovine tribe, when domefticàted, have been found to mix
together without any difficulty. Such a conne&ion would produce
.’a change in the prefent breed of cattle in the. colony, and
without doubt for the better : a worfe it could not well be than
tfie common long-legged ox of the country.
On the evening of the: eighteenth we arrived zx Zwart-kop's,
or Zlgoa bay, and foiind. His.Majefty. s brig, the Hope, riding
at anchor there. This bay is open to every point of the com-
pafs from north-eaft to fouth-eaft, and of courfe affords no kind
o f ihelter againft the prevailing winds. The bottom, however,
is generally fine-fand .and good- holding-ground. Ships may
anchor in five fathoms at thé diftance of a mile from the general
landing-place, which is on the weft fide of the bay ; but
veffels of great burden ihould keep farther out on account of the
very heavy fwell that almoft perpetually rolls in from the eaft-
ward. The latitude of the landing-place is 330 56' fouth, and
longitude 26° 53' eaft of Greenwich ; and the.diftance from the
Cape, in a direâ line, 500 Engliih miles. The time of high-
water, at full and change of the moon, appears to be about
three,o’clock, and the tide rifes between fix and feven feet.
The extent'of the bay, from, the weftern point to the eaftern
extremity, where it rounds off into the general pending of the[
coaft, is about twenty miles ; and the ihore, except from the
landing-place to the weft point, is,a fine, fmooth, fandy beach.
The, rivers that fallinto the bay. are the. Zwartrkop’s ,th t Kooka,
and the Sunday. The mouth o f each of thefe rivers is clofèd up
s 2 by