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 from the point,
it must have interfered with her power of lifting water.
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