THE RHINOCEROS. 15 



at them with all his might, dragged the canoe with him 

 under the water, and smashed it to pieces. The two 

 huntsmen with difficulty escaped. Of twenty-five 

 musket-balls aimed at the head from a distance of about 

 five feet, only one pierced the skin and the bones of the 

 nose : at each snorting the animal spouted out large 

 streams of blood on the boat. The rest of the balls 

 stuck in the thick hide. At last we availed ourselves of a 

 swivel ; but it was not till we had discharged five balls 

 from it at the distance of a few feet, and had done most 

 terrible damage to the head and body, that the colossus 

 gave up the ghost. The darkness of the night increased 

 the danger of the contest, for this gigantic animal tossed 

 our boat about in the stream at his pleasure ; and it was 

 at a fortunate moment indeed for us that he gave up the 

 struggle, as he had carried us into a complete labyrinth 

 of rocks, which, in the midst of the confusion, none of 

 our crew had observed. 



" For want of proper weapons the natives cannot kill 

 a hippopotamus of this size : all they can do to drive 

 him from their fields is to make a little noise in the night, 

 and to keep up fires at different spots. These animals, 

 from their voracity, are a curse to a whole district ; and 

 in some places they are so bold that they will not quit 

 the fields which they are laying waste till a great number 

 of men come out with poles and loud cries to attempt to 

 drive them away." 



Four fossil species of hippopotamus are described by 

 Cuvier ; of one (H. antiquus) the relics are widely dis- 

 tributed, and are particularly abundant in the Val d'Arno, 

 Italy, intermixed with those of the elephant and rhino- 

 ceros. 



The Rhiitoceros. 



This genus contains six living and well-established 

 species, as far as naturalists are at present able to deter- 

 mine, and several fossil species, of which the relics occur 

 in the same strata as those of the fossil elephant. 



The existing species are confined to the hotter regions 

 of the Old World, and are divided between Africa and 



