WHITE RHINOCEROS 289 
may now be looked upon practically as an extinct creature. You may 
exterminate in a hundred years a species like this, but you can by no 
sort of possibility ever again restore it. That is the sad part of the 
destruction of so many rare and beautiful animals. Except, perhaps, 
in North-East Mashonaland, where a solitary survivor or two may still 
possibly linger, or in the vast reed-beds at the junction of the Black 
and White Umvolosi Rivers in Zululand, where Mr. Varndell and 
others have of late procured some of the last survivors, the White 
Rhinoceros exists no longer. Thanks to the exertions of Mr. Coryndon 
and Mr. Varndell, complete examples of this enormous mammal have been 
rescued during the last year or two for the benefit of future ages. Before 
that time no complete adult specimen had ever reached Europe. Fifty 
years ago and less this Rhinoceros was extremely common between the 
Zambesi and the Orange Rivers. Oswell and Vardon slew eighty-nine 
rhinos—black and white—during one season’s hunting. C. J. Andersson 
killed sixty within a few months. Other hunters were equally busy. 
And so the White Rhinoceros, the largest of all terrestrial! mammals, 
after the elephant, has perished. 
HEIGHT at shoulder of the Hon. Walter Rothschild’s specimen, 
when mounted, 6 feet 2 inches. LENGTH over all from nose to root 
of tail, between two uprights, as mounted, 12 feet 1 inch. 
The RAznoceros simus* skull, Cape Town Museum, measures 304 
inches long, 124 inches wide. WEIGHT, 60 lbs. (clean). 
Distribution —Zululand and parts of Eastern Mashonaland, 
almost extinct. 
Length. Circumference. 
Habitat. Owner. 
Front Rear Front Rear 
Horn. Horn. Horn. Horn. 
565 fie 235 Si si British Museum. 
(about) 
44 gee 20 aoe wa Do. 
44 ais oe ase East Africa . . | F. Holmwood. 
42? an 252 te Limpopo, South The late W. C. Oswell. 
Africa 
—41 sie a a South Africa . | J. W. Fitzherbert. 
407 ae 293 oe Do. : . | Sir Edmund G. Loder, Bart. 
40 ee 15? ae on British Museum. 
* This belongs to the mounted specimen, see page 290. 
U 
