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That large animals require a luxuriant vegetation, has been a general assumption which has passed from one work to another; but I do not hesitate to say that it is completely false, and that it has vitiated the 5 reasoning of geologists on some points of great interest in the ancient history of the world. The prejudice has probably been derived from India, and the Indian islands, where troops of elephants, noble forests, and impenetrable jungles, are associated 10 together in every ones mind. If, however, we refer to any work of travels through the southern parts of Africa, we shall find allusions in almost every page either to the desert character of the country, or to the numbers of large animals inhabiting it. The same 15 thing is rendered evident by the many engravings which have been published of various parts of the interior. Dr. Andrew Smith, who has lately succeeded in passing the Tropic of Capricorn, informs me that, 20 taking into consideration the whole of the southern part of Africa, there can be no doubt of its being a sterile country. On the southern coasts there are some fine forests, but with these exceptions, the traveller may pass for days together through open plains, 25 covered by a poor and scanty vegetation. Now, if we look to the animals inhabiting these wide plains, we shall find their numbers extraordinarily great, and their bulk immense. We must enumerate the elephant, three species of rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the 30 giraffe, the bos caffer, two zebras, two gnus, and several antelopes even larger than these latter animals. It may be supposed that although the species are numerous, the individuals of each kind are few. | 
