THE WHITE RHINOCEROS 183 



tioned by Barrow is some way south of the Orange 

 River. But at all events later Europeans have never 

 encountered this rhinoceros south of the Orange. 



o 



Burchell and other travellers found the great beast 

 roaming the plains of Bechuanaland and the adjacent 

 countries in vast numbers. Dr. Andrew Smith, 

 during the scientific expedition sent out by the 

 British Government in 1835, saw immense numbers 

 of rhinoceroses, black and white. Cornwallis Harris 

 and other African travellers had similar experiences 

 of the abundance of both species. But rhinoceroses 

 are, as a rule, pretty easily slain. They are sluggish, 

 and possess poor eyesight, and trust for their protec- 

 tion mainly to their sense of smell. Often they 

 were shot dead while fast asleep in their mid-day 

 siesta. Gordon Gumming, Andersson, and scores of 

 other hunters of the middle of this century used to 

 shoot them in large numbers as they came to drink 

 by night at desert pools and fountains. During the 

 dry season there were collected at these scant water- 

 ing-places all sorts of animals from an immense area 

 of country, and night shooters made proportionately 

 big bags. Oswell and Vardon killed in one season 

 eighty-nine black and white rhinoceroses : Andersson 

 some sixty in a similar period. This sort of thing, 

 which was eagerly carried on by all hunters, 

 European, Boer, and native, whenever opportunity 

 occurred, could not last for ever ; and, thanks to the 



