Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/173

PAUNA OF SENEGAL. I37 a thorny zlzyphus, which flourishes on the Upper Senegal and Faleme. In Kaarta and other regions of the interior the vine grows spontaneously, even yielding a savoury grape, which, however, none but the children ever think of gathering. The attempts to introduce this vine into J'rance have failed, and even in the country it has been found impossible to graft it. Besides the species already known in commerce, botanists mention hundreds of woody or grassy plants, whose seeds, roots, bark, sap, gum, foliage, or fruit might be turned to profitable account. One of the most remarkable is the karite {Bassia Parkii) of the Bakhoy, Faleme, and neighbouring districts, which has acquired the name of the butter-tree, from the fatty substance of its fruit, the ce of the natives and shea of English writers. The guru, or kola (Sterculia acuminata), whose root will render even foul water pleasant to the taste, forms extensive forests on the Upper Senegal and in Futa-Jallon. Fauna. Like the flora, the Senegalese fauna belongs to the two conterminous regions of the Sahara and Sudan. In the northern steppes and those of Futa, the Arabs hunt the ostrich, which is even domesticated in many villages. The girafPe and various species of antelopes are still met on the grassy plains dotted over with clumps of trees which stretch from the great bend of the Senegal southwards in the direction of the Salum and Gambia. The well-watered and fertile tracts remote from human habitations still afPord a refuge to the elephants, who roamed in herds of forty or fifty over the savannahs in the eighteenth century, and who so recently as 1860 were occasionally seen in the neighbourhood of Lake Panieful, or even crossed the lake into the lower delta. Nor has the hippopotamus yet dis- appeared from the Upper Senegal, while the wild boar frequents all the thickets. The grey monkeys are the only quadrumana seen on the coastlands ; but multitudes of cynocephali inhabit the forests of the interior. These baboons constitute little republics in the neighbourhood of the cultivated tracts, where they commit great depredations amongst the crops. Yet some of the tribes near Bakel claim to have made a treaty of peace with the monkeys, in virtue of which their lands are exempt from pillage. Win wood Eead asserts that these animals combine to attack the panther, usually killing him after losing many of their members. Beasts of prey, scarcely ever seen in Futa-Jallon, are numerous and formidable throughout the Bambuk district The lion, here maneless, but as large as " the lord of the Atlas," haunts the steppes north and south of the river, and is frequently seen prowling about Dagana in the dry season. He is said never to attack women, and even to make way for them ; but in the Jolof country the people speak with dread of a black lion who does not hesitate to fall upon men. No European hunter has ever seen this animal, but mention is frequently made of other rapacious beasts, such as panthers, leopards, tiger-cats and wild cats, lynxes, hyajnas, and jackals. Birds are very numerous near the forests and marshy districts. The sui-manga, a living gem like the humming-bird of the New World, all sparkling with gold and metallic lustre, is seen at times to flash amid the emerald foliage. The 73— AF