162 NEIGHBORS WITH CLAWS AND HOOFS. 



12. " The rider was, of course, violently precipitated 

 to the ground. While thus prostrated he saw the horn 

 of the monster alongside of him ; but, without attempting 

 to do any further mischief, the brute started off at a canter 

 from the scene of action. If the rhinoceros imagined it 

 had come off victor, it was soon undeceived, for Mr. 

 Oswell, rushing upon one of his companions, who by this 

 time had come up, and, unceremoniously pulling him off 

 his horse, leaped into the saddle, and, without a hat, his 

 face streaming with blood, was quickly in pursuit of the 

 beast, which he soon had the satisfaction to see stretched 

 lifeless at his feet." 



13. In the rhinoceros and the hippopotamus we see 

 interesting links in the chain which holds together the 

 great kingdom of animals. The hippopotamus, living 

 both in the water and on the land, and, by its peculiar 

 toes, bears a resemblance to the walrus and seal of the 

 cetacean group on the one hand, and points to the pig 

 and larger herb-eating animals on the other. The rhi- 

 noceros, in its general character and in its three cetacean 

 toes, looks toward the hippopotamus on the one side, and, 

 in its life on the land and its way of feeding, to the higher 

 animals of the land on the other. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

 THE FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY OF AGASSIZ. 



1. IT was fifty years ago, 



In the pleasant month of May, 

 In the beautiful Pays de Yaud, 

 A child in its cradle lay. 



