THE RHINOCEROS. 27 



drawings had given me a very imperfect conception. They 

 are more bulky animals, and of a darker colour than I had 

 supposed, and the thickness of the folds of their impenetrable 

 skin much surpasses all which I had expected. These at 

 Lucknow are quiet and gentle animals, except that one of 

 them has a feud with horses. They seem to propagate in 

 captivity without reluctance, and I should conceive might be 

 available to carry burthens as well as the elephant, except 

 that as their pace is still slower than his, their use could only 

 be applicable to very great weights, and very gentle travelling. 

 These have sometimes had howdahs on them, and were once 

 fastened in a carriage, but only as an experiment, which was 

 never followed up." — vol. ii. 



And in the third volume, he observes : "In passing through 

 the city I saw two very fine hunting-tigers in silver chains ; 

 and a rhinoceros, (the present of Lord Amherst to theGuicwar,) 

 which is so tame as to be ridden by a Mohout quite as pa- 

 tiently as an elephant." 



The able translator of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom observes : 

 " The power of this species is frequently displayed to a sur- 

 prising degree when hunting it. A few years ago, a party of 

 Europeans with their native attendants and elephants, when 

 out on the dangerous sport of hunting these animals, met 

 with a herd of seven of them, led, as it appeared, by one larger 

 and stronger than the rest. When the large rhinoceros 

 charged the hunters, the leading elephants, instead of using 

 their tusks or weapons, which in ordinary cases they are 

 ready enough to do, wheeled round and received the blow of 

 the rhinoceros's horn upon the posteriors; the blow brought 

 them immediately to the ground with their riders, and as 

 soon as they had risen, the brute was again ready, and again 

 brought them down; and in this manner did the contest con- 

 tinue until four out of the seven were killed, when the rest 

 made good their retreat. 



u By comparing the tenour of these short observations of 

 them in their wild condition and in a state of confinement, we 

 may gather sufficient data on which to form a tolerable estimate 

 of the character of these animals. Endowed with amazing 

 powers of body, — powers which can repel, if not overcome 

 the active ferocity of the lion and the ponderous strength of 

 the elephant, but at the same time seeking their sustenance 

 not by the destruction of animal life, but in the profuse 

 banquet of the vegetable kingdom, they might naturally be 

 expected to avail themselves of their physical power prin- 

 cipally in self-defence. Accordingly we find that to the first 

 aggressor the rhinoceros is a terrible enemy; but if left to 



