158 



RHINOCEROS. 



The Rhinoceri are another race of enormous 

 animals, which are peculiar to the warm parts of 

 Africa and India, inhabiting the districts where 

 vegetation is profuse, and where there is an abun- 

 dance of water. They may be said to be charac- 

 terized externally, principally by the great thick-, 

 ness and strength of their skin, which is destitute 

 of hair, often arranged in folds, and presents, as it 

 were, a mailed armour, almost impenetrable to an 

 ordinary leaden bullet ; and by the nose and snout 

 being furnished by one or two excrescences having 

 the form and appearance of curved formidable 

 horns. These are of a substance as if hair was 

 agglutinated together, and rendered compact, 

 possessing no central sheath, and unconnected 

 with the bone of the skull. Mr Burchell's remarks 

 on their structure are interesting. " The horn 

 of the Rhinoceros, differing in structure from that 

 of every other animal, and placed in a situation 

 of which it is the only example, had long appeared 



