Note 2 — CHAP. VI.

The European animals that live in this country are no less debilitated and diminutive than the human species. The oxen, for instance, are very small2, and their beef not near so delicate as it is in Europe, owing probably to their perpetual perspiration, and the coarseness of the grass on which they feed, which is not so good as that of the salt marshes in Somersetshire. On the banks of the Oronoque the oxen run wild, and are sold by the Spaniards for two dollars per head. A single piece of ready-roasted beef is often sent from Europe to Guiana as a most valuable and delicate present. The manner of preserving the meat for this long voyage, when roasted, is by putting it in a block-tin box or cannister; then filling up the empty space with gravy or dripping till it is perfectly covered over; after which the box must be made fast and soldered round about, so that neither air nor water can penetrate: by this means I was told it may be with safety carried round the globe.