»¿ember and diredtly upon this, with a moft dreadful bellow* U r O ing, gave us to underftand that it was all over with him. All this together formed a fpeétacle, which moft fportfmen would have been highly delighted to have been prefent at. This creature, as well as moft of the larger kind: of game, was ihot by the Hottentot whom my friend and hoft at Sea- cow- river had fent along with me, by way of being my guide and markfman. Even fome of the beft huntfmen among the farmers are obliged, tor the moft part, to make ufe o f Hottentots, by way of buih-hUnters ; as in their ikin cloaks they do not excite the attention of the wild beafts, fo much as the Chriftians do in their drefs. They are like wife ready at any time when there is occafion for it, to go bare-foot, and crawl foftly upon their bellies, till they come within a proper diftance of the animal. Moreover, when the buffalo at length is irritated, the Hottentots can much.eafier efcape from the danger which threatens them, than a Chriftian. I myfelf, on another occafion, faw two Hottentots run with amazing fwiftnefs, when a buffalo was in purfuit o f them. It was not without the greateft difcontent on thé’ part o f my Hottentots, that I made a draught, and took the di- menfions o f this buffalo ; thus preventing them, in the mean while, from falling aboard of the fleih. Neither did they afterwards delay one moment to cut a few iliees off and broil them. They likewife laid two bones on the fire to broil, for the lake of the marrow. After this they began to take out the entrails, which, according to the teftimony of my Hottentots, perfectly refembled thofe of an ox: the buffalo’s, however, are much larger, and take up more room, and indeed gave us no little trouble in clearing clearing them away; for the diameter o f this creature’s body was full three feet. . Upon the whole, the fize of the buffalo was as follows: the length eight feet, the height five and a half, and the forelegs two feet and a half long; the larger hoofs were five inches over; from the tip of the muzzle to the horns was.twenty-two inches.* This animal in ihape, as may be feen in the plate, very much refembled the common ox; but the buffalo has much ftouter limbs, in proportion to its height and length. Their fetlocks hang likewife nearer to the ground. The horns are lingular, both in their form and pof i t ionthe bafes of them are thirteen inches broad, and are only air inch diftance from each other; by which means, there is formed between them- a narrow channel or furrow, in a great meafure bare of hair. Meafuring them from this furrow, the horns rife up in a fpherical form, with an elevation of three inches at moft. In this way they extend over a great part of the head, viz. from the nape of the neck to the diftance of three and. a half inches from the eyes; fo that the part from which they grow out, does hot occupy a ipace of lefs than eighteen or twenty inches in circumference. -From hence bending down on each fide of the neck, and becoming more cylindrical by degrees, they each o f them form a curve, the convex part of which is turned towards the ground, and the point up in the air; which, however, at the fame time is generally inclined backwards. The diftance between the points of the horns is frequently above five feet; the colour of them is black; and the' furface to within about a third part of them meafttred from the bafe, is Very rough and craggy,
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