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 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 together in every one's 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 thing is rendered evident by the many engravings which
have been published of various parts of the interior. When the
"Beagle" was at Cape Town, I made an excursion of some days' length
into the country, which at least was sufficient to render that
which I had read more fully intelligible.
Dr. Andrew Smith, who, at the head of his adventurous party, has
lately succeeded in passing the Tropic of Capricorn, informs me
that, taking into consideration the whole of the southern part of
Africa, there can be no doubt of its being a sterile country.
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