188 NATURE AND SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA 



was little harassed by the black man. It feared 

 neither the lion nor any other of the carnivora, 

 except in its youngest state of calfdom, and even 

 then it had always a sufficiently formidable mother 

 to protect it. 



The numbers of these great creatures to be found 

 in South Africa even fifty years ago must have been 

 very great. Cornwallis Harris speaks of them in 

 1837 as "very common in the interior." Oswell, 

 who hunted from 1844 to 1851, speaks of seeing 

 them in herds of six and eight, and of once, when 

 in need of meat for natives, having slain six within 

 a quarter of a mile with single balls. Oswell was a 

 man of scrupulous integrity and honour, and his 

 testimony, like Selous', is absolutely to be relied 

 upon. Often he and his party had to drive the 

 great beasts from their vicinity, before outspanning 

 for the night. The animals appeared to mistake the 

 wagons for living creatures, and were most trouble- 

 some in their attentions. Gordon Gumming men- 

 tions having seen as many as twelve feeding together 

 in a patch of young grass. As a general rule, how- 

 ever, the white rhinoceros may be said to have 

 wandered singly or in pairs. The whole country, in the 

 time of Harris, Oswell, and Gordon Gumming, held 

 so many of the kind, that they were to be seen in 

 the numbers I have mentioned. 



Stupid, sleepy, short-sighted, and easily approached 



