The Elephant, Tapir, Hyrax, and Rhinoceros 185 



PAoto 6y 6'. 5. Ilausbury, E#I. 



BLACK AFRICAN RHINOCEROSES. 



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A splendid snapshot of two black African rhinoceroses taken on the open veldt. They were afterwards shot by the party. 



The fact, however, that the white rhinoceros has never been encountered by any other traveller 

 in Central Africa seems to show that the animal is either very rare in those districts, or that 

 it has an exceedingly limited range. 



In the early years of the nineteenth century the square-mouthed or white rhinoceros 

 was found in large numbers over the whole of South Africa from the Orange River to the 

 Zambesi, except in the waterless portions of the Kalahari Desert, or those parts of the country 

 which are covered with rugged stony hills or dense jungle. 



Speaking of his journey in 1837 through the western part of what is now the Transvaal 

 Colony, Captain (afterwards Sir) Cornwallis Harris wrote : " On our way from the waggons to a hill 

 not half a mile distant, we counted no less than twenty-two of the white species of rhinoceros, 

 and were compelled in self-defence to slaughter four. On one occasion I was besieged in a bush 

 by three at once, and had no little difficulty in beating off the assailants." Even so lately as 

 thirty years ago the white rhinoceros was still to be met with in fair numbers in Ovampoland and 

 other districts of Western South Africa, whilst 

 it was quite plentiful in all the uninhabited 

 parts of Eastern South Africa from Zululand 

 to the Zambesi. In 1872 and 1873, whilst 

 elephant-hunting in the uninhabited parts of 

 Matabililand, I encountered white rhinoceroses 

 almost daily, and often saw several in one 

 day. At the present time, however, unless it 

 should prove to be numerous in some as yet 

 unexplored districts of North Central Africa, 

 this strange and interesting animal must be 

 counted one of the rarest of existing mammals, 

 and in Southern Africa I fear it must soon 

 become extinct. A few still exist amongst 

 the wild loquat groves of Northern Mashona- 

 land, and there are also a few surviving in 

 Zululand; but I fear that even with the 





Photo by C. S. Hamburg, Esq. 



ONE OF THE SAME RHINOCEROSES DEAD. 

 This picture gives some idea of the size of the commonest surviving species. 



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