184 NATURE AND SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA 



wanton and wasteful slaughter of those days, there 

 are now to be found very few black rhinoceroses 

 south of the Zambesi; while the white rhinoceros 

 is, if not already quite extinct, just on the point of 

 extinction. It has been well known to South African 

 hunters for the last few years that probably the 

 last representatives of this great mammal would be 

 found, if anywhere, in some remote and difficult 

 country in a corner of North-east Mashonaland. 

 Here Mr. Coryndon procured his specimens. The 

 skins and skeletons were preserved with infinite 

 trouble, and now — thanks to Mr. Coryndon's energy 

 and care — decorate the collections of the Natural 

 History Museum and of the Rothschild Museum at 

 Tring. Thus — with an example forwarded by Mr. 

 Varndell — have the only three complete specimens of 

 this interesting mammal been rescued for future 

 generations. Mr. Selous and most other South 

 African hunters supposed with some confidence 

 that this portion of Mashonaland would prove to be 

 absolutely the last home of the white rhinoceros. 

 At the end of 1894, however, there came tidings 

 that some few of these immense creatures still 

 existed in the low, inaccessible, tsetse-fly-haunted 

 country between the lower courses of the Black and 

 White TJmvolosi rivers, Zululand. Here are dense 

 reed-beds and much jungle and cover, to which, 

 evidently, the last remnant of the white rhinoceros 



