Rhinoceroses. 65 



that a few were still to be found, and now these few have 

 almost, if not quite, all been killed, and to the best of my 

 belief the great white or square-mouthed rhinoceros, the 

 largest of terrestrial mammals after the elephant, is on the 

 very verge of extinction, and in the next year or two will 

 become absolutely extinct ; and if in the near future some 

 student of natural history' should wish to know what this 

 extinct beast really was like, he will find nothing in all the 

 museums of Europe and America to enlighten him upon 

 the subject but some half-dozen skulls and a goodly 

 number of the anterior horns. In 1886 two Boer hunters 

 got into the little tract of country where a few white 

 rhinoceroses were still left, and between them killed ten 

 during the season ; five more were killed during the same 

 time by some native hunters from the Matabele country. 

 A few were still left, as in the following year, 1887, myself 

 and some English sportsmen saw the tracks of two or three 

 in the same district, but could not find the animals them- 

 selves. Some of these last remnants of their race may still 

 survive ; but it is not too much to say that long before the 

 close of this century the white rhinoceros will have vanished 

 from the face of the earth. . . . The subject of the 

 extinction of this huge quadruped has a melancholy interest 

 for me, who remember that less than twenty years ago it 

 was a common animal over an enormous extent of country 

 in central South Africa. 



The extermination of the white rhinoceros is, 

 perhaps, not to be wondered at, as it is one of 

 the inevitable results of the extension of the settle- 

 ments in South Africa; but that no museum in 

 Europe or America should possess a specimen if 

 we except the young mounted specimen, about the 

 size of a large pig, in the British Museum is 

 curious, and very much to be regretted, and we 

 are pleased to see that Dr. Sclater has called 



