•77!. ing thus continually grazed off, and the great increafe of the cattle feeding on them, the graffes and herbs which thefe animals moft covet are prevented continually more and more from thriving and taking root; while, on the contrary, the rhinoceros-buih, which the cattle always pafs by and leave untouched, is fuffered to take root free and unmolefted, and encroach on the place of others: fo that this ought to appear the lefs ftrange to the colonifts, as t h i s , puniihment for their fins (as they call the rhinoceros- buih,) together with feveral other dry barren fhrubs and builies, is found in greater abundance than any where elfe near their farms, the place where the cattle are chiefly ufed to feed. Notwithfianding thefe inconveniencies, the colonifts remain immoveable in their ftone houfes; while, on the contrary, the Hottentots (and this was the cafe in former time's) on the leaft panic remove their huts and cattle to another place, fo that the grafs is no where eaten off too clofe. Together with this diminution of pafturage, there is another circumftance which contributes not a little to the degeneracy of the breed; this is, that the calves, on account of the great quantity of butter made, (which never was the cafe with the Hottentots) are reared up with lefs milk than formerly. In the mean time, i f they go on in this manner, the prefage o f the country people may chance to prove true, viz. that many fpots that are now inhabited and cultivated, muft be re- linquiihed and fuffered to lie wafte. But it may like- wife happen, that time and reft may at length reftore to the foil the heart and ftrength, which the colonifts have deprived it o f; and that the grafs and herbage may, in their their turn, have an opportunity of extruding the ihrubs and Sep't^ er- buihes, after having received the proteftion of the ihelter and ihade of thefe latter; and after having, by undergoing a kind of putrefaction, made themfelves a foil more fertile and better adapted to their nature. It is alfo not improbable, that the game, finding more fecurity from the fportfmen here than formerly, may refort hither in great numbers : and it is well known, that in feeding they make a more equal divifion between the grafs and buihes than the ordinary cattle do; nay, it may happen, that the gazell’s dung and other accidental circumftances, which people here have neglefted to make trial of, may come to extirpate the rhinoceros-hvdh. in its turn. The animals which occur only in Africa are, in my opinion, as much defigned for the plants peculiar to this climate, as the plants are for the animals. The rein-deer, for inftance, an animal deftin- ed by nature for the climate of Lapland, and for the mofs with which it is covered, by botanifts called lichen rangi- ferus, is in that place domefticated with the greateft advantage; where, however, cattle would thrive very ill. The elk, another of nature’s kind prefents to our climate, was formerly confidered as a fit fubjetft for the chace only, (which, in fa<5t, was the chief employment o f moft nations, and even of the moft favage) till our more confi- derate countrymen and truly zealous patriots, the Barons A l s t r o e m m e r , by propofing premiums and by other methods, endeavoured to make this ftately, ftrong, and fwift- footed animal likewife domeftic, and thereby more fervice- able to the country it inhabits. Induced by thefe examples, the African colonifts ought to take it into ferious confideration,
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