The animal world* in Africa changes equally its nature as it passes from one to another of these opposite regions. In the plains inundated by the great rivers it multiplies with extraordinary power, and often assumes huge and repulsive forms. Throughout all this continent the wild tribes exist in large and formidable numbers, and there is scarcely a tract which they do not either hold in full possession, or fiercely dispute with man. Even the most densely-peopled countries border on wide forests and wastes, whose ruthless tenants find their prey occasionally in the wandering savage, as well as in the tamer animals which surround him; and when the scent of human slaughter is wafted on the breeze, bands of hungry monsters hasten from every side to the feast of blood. These ferocious creatures hold, indeed, so commanding a position, that the native scarcely makes any attempt to extirpate them, or even to prevent their increase. He wages against them only a defensive war, and employs his courage and skill chiefly in hunting the elephant, the antelope, and other peaceful species, by whose spoil he may be enriched.

The lion, that king of the desert, and mightiest among the tribes which have the wilderness for their abode, abounds in Africa, and causes all her forests to re-echo his midnight roar. Yet both his courage and fierceness have, it is said, been overrated; and the man who can undauntedly face him, or evade his first dreadful spring, rarely falls his victim. Wider ravages are committed by the hyena, not the strongest, but the most ferocious and untameable of all the beasts of prey. These creatures, by moving in numerous bands, achieve what is beyond the single strength of the larger animals; they burst with devouring rage into the cities, and have even carried by storm fortified enclosures. The elephant roams in vast herds through the densely-wooded tracts of the

* In the present chapter we allude only to a few of the more conspicuous and peculiar characteristics of African zoology. The subject is treated at greater length in a subsequent part of this volume.

interior, disputing with the lion the rank of sovereign among quadrupeds; matchless in bulk and strength, yet tranquil, majestic, peaceful, he is led with his fellows under the guidance of the most ancient of their number, having a social and almost moral existence. He seldom attacks either man or beast. The human being is in most cases the aggressor, not only with the view of protecting the fruits of the earth, but also in order to obtain the bony substance composing his tusks, which, under the name of ivory, forms one of the most valued articles of African trade. The prodigious strength of the elephant, his almost impenetrable hide, his rapid though awkward movements, render him a most perilous object of attack even to the boldest hunters; so that pits and snares of various kinds are the usual means by which his capture is effected. Instead of the tiger, Africa has the leopard and the panther, belonging, however, only to certain of its districts.

In the large and broad rivers of this continent, and through the immense forests which overshadow them, a race of amphibious animals of monstrous shape and size display their unwieldy figures. The rhinoceros, though not strictly amphibious, slowly traverses marshes and swampy grounds, and almost equals the elephant in strength and defensive powers, but wants his stature, his dignity, and his wisdom. The single or double horn with which he protects himself is an article of commerce in the East, though not valued in Europe. A still huger form is that of the hippopotamus, or river-horse, fitted alike to stalk on land, to march along the bottom of the waters, or to swim on their surface. He is slow, ponderous, and gentle; yet when annoyed, either by design or accident, his wrath is terrible; he rushes up from his watery retreat, and, by merely striking with his enormous tusks, can overset or sink a loaded canoe. But the most dreaded of all the inhabitants of the African rivers is the crocodile, the largest and fiercest of the lizard tribe. He lies like a log upon the waters, watching for his prey, attacking men and even the strongest

animals, which, however, engage with him in obstinate and deadly encounters.

We have not yet done with the various prodigious creatures that Africa generates. She swarms more especially with the serpent brood, which spread terror, some by their deadly poison, others by their mere bulk and strength; in which last respect her reptiles have struck the world with amazement. Ancient history records that whole provinces have been overrun by them, and that one, in particular, after disputing the passage of a river with a Roman army, was destroyed only by the use of a battering engine.

Emerging from these dank regions, where the earth, under the united influence of heat and moisture, teems with such a noxious superabundance of life, we approach the Desert. Here a change takes place equally singular and pleasing as in the vegetable world. Only light and airy forms trip along the sandy border; creatures innocent, gentle, and beautiful, the antelope, of twenty different species, all swift, with bright eyes, erect and usually elegant figures,-preying neither on men nor the other animals, but pursued by most on account of the delicate food which they afford. Here, too, roams the zebra, with its finely-striped skin, encompassing it like a robe of rich cloth; and the camelopard, the tallest and most remarkable of quadrupeds, with his long fore-legs and high-stretching neck, of singular and fantastic beauty, crops the leaves of the African forest. Though a rare species, he is seen occasionally straying over a great portion of that continent.

Nature, sporting, as it would seem, in the production of extraordinary objects, has filled Africa with a wonderful multitude of those animals which bear the closest alliance to "the human form divine." The orang-outang appears to constitute the link between man and the lower orders of living things. Standing erect, without a tail, with flat face, and arms of not greatly disproportioned length, it displays in every particular a deformed resemblance to the lord of the creation. It seems even

to make a nearer approach than any other animal to the exercise of reason. It has been taught to make its own bed, to sit at table, to eat with a knife and fork, and to pour out tea. M. Degrandpré mentions one kept on board a French vessel, which lighted and kept the oven at a due temperature, put in the bread at a given signal, and even assisted in drawing the ropes. There was a strong suspicion among the sailors that it would have spoken, but for the fear of being put to harder work.— The baboons, again, are a large, brutal species, disgusting in their appearance, yet not without some kind of union and polity. The monkey tribe, now familiar in Europe, and attracting attention by their playful movements, fill with sportive cries all the forests of tropical Africa.

The insect race, which in our climate is generally harmless, presents there many singular and even formidable characteristics. The flying tribes in particular, through the action of the sun on the swampy land, rise up in terrible and destructive numbers. They fill the air and darken the sky; they annihilate the labour of nations; they drive even armies before them. The locust, when its bands issue in close and dark array from the depths of the Desert, commits ravages surpassing those of the most ferocious beasts, or even the more desolating career of human warfare. In vain do the despairing inhabitants seek with fire and other means to arrest their progress; the dense and irresistible mass continues to move onward, and soon baffles every attempt to check its course. Whole provinces which, at their entrance, display rich harvests or brilliant verdure, are left without an ear or a blade; and, when at length destroyed by famine or tempest, they cover immense tracts exhaling the most noisome stench. Yet they may be used as food, and are even relished by certain native tribes. The mosquito and its allies do not spread such a fearful desolation; though, by their poisoned and tormenting stings, they render life miserable, and not very unfrequently lead to its extinction. Even a swarm of wild bees, in the solitary woods of Western Africa, has put

a whole caravan to flight, wounding severely some of its members. But perhaps the most extraordinary of all the insect races are the termites or white ants, which display, on a greater scale, the arts and social organization for which their species are so famed in Europe. They cover the plains with their conical huts from ten to twelve feet in height, and are regularly distributed into labourers and soldiers, with others holding the rank of king and queen. This latter personage, when about to add to the numbers of the tribe, presents a most extraordinary spectacle, being swelled to many times the amount of her natural dimensions; and, at the arrival of the critical period, instead of a progeny of two or three, she produces as many thousands. These ants are far from being of the same harmless description as the corresponding insects of this quarter of the world. On finding their way into a house they devour every thing, clothes, furniture, food, not even, it is said, sparing the inmates, who are compelled to make a speedy retreat.

Such are the evils to which the people of this continent are perpetually exposed from the lower creation; and yet they experience in full force the truth of the pathetic lamentation of the poet, that "man is to man the surest, deadliest foe." Africa, from the earliest ages, has been the most conspicuous theatre of crime and of wrong; where social life has lost the traces of primitive simplicity, without rising to order, principle, or refinement; where fraud and violence are formed into national systems, and man trembles at the sight of his fellow-creature. For centuries, thousands of her unfortunate children have been dragged in chains over her deserts, and across the ocean, to spend their lives in distant bondage. In a word, superstition, tyranny, anarchy, and the opposing interests of numberless petty states, maintain a constant and destructive warfare in this suffering portion of the earth.

Nevertheless, compelled as we have thus been to describe the ills of Africa, we should err very widely did we represent her as pervaded by one deep monoton