Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/92

66 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. later directed their steps towards the Portuguese territory of Mossamedes, had founded a colony in the hilly Kaoko region. But here also, as in Humpata, they occupied themselves less with tillage than with raising herds of cattle. Their agricultural operations were confined to what was strictly needed for their annual supply of corn. Beyond the Cunene district and some exceptionally favoured valleys, stock- bretding appears to be everywhere the local industry most rich in future promise. Its broad grassy plateaux make the country essentially a grazing land. All wild animals, except several species of antelopes, a few felidae, jackals, and rodents, have already been exterminated. Even the ostrich, which is farmed in the British colonies farther south, is here eagerly hunted, and is no longer met in the neigh- b!)urhood of the seaboard. Some crocodiles are still met in the watercourses communicating with the Cunene ; snakes, lizards, and locusts, are represented by numerous species, and one of the local serpents is the deadly ciispedeiro, or "spittor" of the Angolan Portuguese, which attains a length of 25 or 26 feet, and which the wizards bad formerly acquired the art of charming, and intro- ducing into the houses of the sick. The animals which are now bred on the upland pasture lands — horses, oxen, sheep, and goats — were all originally introduced from Europe. It has often been proposed to introduce the camel into the half desert regions of south-west Africa ; but the valuable breed of puck oxen already largely employed throughout the southern states and colonies amply suffices for all the requirements of the trans- port service, while the difference between the cost of their purchase and keep lenders their employment much more economical than would be that of the camel. It is not so much its wealth of live stock that gives importance to this region in the eyes of its new masters. Apart from the satisfaction of having secured possession of a countrj' which the English of the Cape were hankering after, they ]Aace great hopes in the rich mineral resources still lying almost untouched in the highlands running at a short distance from the coast. Rich copper ores especially occur in many places on the plateau and even in the advanced spurs of the mountains, and notwithstanding the difficulties of transport, mining operations liave already begun at several points. South of Angra Pequena silver ores have also been found ; but from the reports lately made by the surveyors, it is to be feared that the first hopes of the prospectors may prove to be altogether fallacious. At the same time, as soon as the country is traversed by good roads, there can be no doubt that it will acquire a certain importance for its niineral resources, which cannot fail to attract capital and industrious populations. Meantime it may readily be imagined that settlers have not hitherto been very numerous in a region where both water and arable land are deficient, and where travellers run the risk of perishing from hunger and thirst. In many of the Namaqua districts the explorer may travel for weeks together without meeting a single group of cabins. But the population is naturally somewhat denser in the northern territory, where the mountain ranges are more elevated, the slopes more grassy, the fluvial beds not quite so destitute of runninq; waters. IIei§ every