3-011-349 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Cattle on their way to Tamatave, Madagascar, 1864. 'Madagascar...does a considerable trade in live beef...It exports 30,000 head of cattle in a year...The ox is there commonly represented by the variety called "zebu", or the Indian ox (bos Indicus)...These cattle are driven from the highlands of Ankova, down the steep passes of Angavo, across the river Mangoro, to the plains of Ankay, where they are allowed to recruit themselves on a magnificent pasturage before traversing the dense forests of Analamazastra. It is interesting, though rather inconvenient, to meet one of these vast herds in some of the precipitous watercourses or ravines, which in many places form the only path. Some of these places are so steep that the marmittes, or herdsmen, have to force the cattle, one ox after another, over the edge, where they slip and slide, and tumble and roll, and so reach the bottom somehow. In some places there are regular slides over the sticky clay, only interrupted by the deep holes made by the animals' feet when they pull themselves up by sticking their hoofs well into the soft mud'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.