

THE RHINOCEROS OF THE LADO 401 



Africa is a huge continent, and many species of the big 

 mammals inhabiting it are spread over a vast surface; and 

 some of them offer strange problems for inquiry in the 

 discontinuity of their distribution. The most extraordi- 

 nary instance of this discontinuity is that offered by the 

 distribution of the square-mouthed rhinoceros. It is almost 

 as if our bison had never been known within historic times 

 except in Texas and Ecuador. This great rhinoceros was 

 formerly plentiful in South Africa south of the Zambesi, 

 where it has been completely exterminated except for a 

 score or so of individuals on a game reserve. North of the 

 Zambesi it was and is utterly unknown, save that during 

 the last ten years it has been found to exist in several local- 

 ities on the left bank of the Upper Nile, close to the river, 

 and covering a north and south extension of about two hun- 

 dred miles. Even in this narrow ribbon of territory the 

 square-mouthed rhinoceros is found only in certain locali- 

 ties, and although there has not hitherto been much slaugh- 

 ter of the mighty beast, it would certainly be well if all 

 killing of it were prohibited until careful inquiry has been 

 made as to its numbers and exact distribution. It is a curi- 

 ous animal, on the average distinctly larger than, and utterly 

 different from, the ordinary African rhinoceros. The spinal 

 processes of the dorsal vertebrae are so developed as to make 

 a very prominent hump over the withers, while forward of 

 this is a still higher and more prominent fleshy hump on the 

 neck. The huge, misshapen head differs in all respects as 

 widely from the head of the common or so-called black rhi- 

 noceros as the head of a moose differs from that of a wapiti. 

 The morning after making camp we started on a rhi- 

 noceros hunt. At this time in this neighborhood, the rhi- 



