146 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



hunter's waggon in fording the stream, and that it 

 was obtained much further up country than the 

 locality where it was found. In spite of its 

 history, the horn is in good preservation, and but 

 little defaced, though the base has apparently been 

 gnawed by rats. It is longer than the anterior 

 horns borne by the mounted specimens either at 

 Tring or South Kensington, taping exactly 2 feet ; 

 the circumference at the base is i^A inches. 1 



A few years ago this census would have 

 practically completed our knowledge of the white 

 rhinoceros, which would have been regarded as a 

 well-nigh lost species, being almost exterminated 

 south of the Zambesi, and utterly unknown north 

 of that river. But an astonishing sequel remains. 



The white rhinoceros, harassed out of existence 

 throughout South Africa, has been re-discovered 

 further north. It has risen, phcenix-like, from its 

 ashes ; the naturalist need no longer mourn it as 

 an extinct animal ! 



1 It would be interesting to know if the white rhinoceros head 

 brought to England by the Rev. John Campbell, about 1815, is still 

 in existence. It appears to have been preserved as late as 1867 in 

 the Museum of the London Missionary Society at Finsbury, but there 

 seems to be no mention of it during recent years in zoological litera- 

 ture. In a figure now before me the artist has absurdly furnished 

 the open jaws with an imaginary series of perfectly regular pseudo- 

 molar teeth : the square mouth has been distorted to resemble the 

 prehensile lip of the black species, though the slit-like nostrils, 

 position of eye and semi-tubular ears are delineated with fair correct- 

 ness. The anterior horn of this individual is said to have been 3 ft. 

 long : and, as figured, from its slenderness recalls Col. Hamilton 

 Smith's description of the mysterious horn, brought from Africa, 

 from which he sought to deduce the existence of a true unicorn 

 in the interior of that Continent. 



