made measurements of other
animals in the south; but the appearance of the animals themselves in
the north at once produced the impression on my mind referred to as to
their decrease in size. When we first saw koodoos, they were so much
smaller than those we had been accustomed to in the south that we
doubted whether they were not a new kind of antelope; and the leche,
seen nowhere south of 20 Deg., is succeeded by the poku as we go north.
This is, in fact, only a smaller species of that antelope, with a more
reddish color. A great difference in size prevails also among domestic
animals; but the influence of locality on them is not so well marked.
The cattle of the Batoka, for instance, are exceedingly small and very
beautiful, possessing generally great breadth between the eyes and a
very playful disposition. They are much smaller than the aboriginal
cattle in the south; but it must be added that those of the Barotse
valley, in the same latitudes as the Batoka, are large. The breed may
have come from the west, as the cattle within the influence of the sea
air, as at Little Fish Bay, Benguela, Ambriz, and along that coast, are
very large. Those found at Lake Ngami, with large horns and standing
six feet high, probably come from the same quarter. The goats are also
small, and domestic fowls throughout this country are of a very
small size, and even dogs, except where the inhabitants have had an
opportunity of improving the breed by importation from the Portuguese.
As the Barotse cattle are an exception to this general rule, so are
the Barotse dogs, for they are large, savage-looking animals, though in
reality very cowardly. It is a little remarkable that a decrease in size
should occur where food is the most abundant; but tropical climates seem
unfavorable for the full development of either animals or man. It is
not from want of care in the breeding, for the natives always choose the
larger and stronger males for stock, and the same arrangement prevails
in nature, for it is only by overcoming their weaker rivals that the
wild males obtain possession of the herd. Invariably they show the scars
received in battle. The elephant we killed yesterday had an umbilical
hernia as large as a child's head, probably caused by the charge of a
rival. The cow showed scars received from men; two of the wounds in her
side were still unhealed, and there was an orifice six inches long, and
open, in her proboscis, and, as it was about a foot