568 



RHINOCEROS. 



of the atmosphere for one knows not how many thou- 

 sands of years ; so that there cannot be a doubt that the 

 principle which is established by actual observation 

 in their case, was equally true in the case of every 

 other remain, whether of more or of less ancient date, 

 which has been found or shall be found in the same 

 latitudes ; and the fact must be held as perfectly 

 established, that the average climate of every zone in 

 the world, as depending on the influence of the sun, 

 was the same in the very remotest times as it is now. 

 To suppose otherwise, though perhaps not an 

 unnatural supposition in the days of ignorance, was 

 calculated to originate and confirm a very perni- 

 cious and inveterate error on the subject of Nature's 

 grand system, the universe or, taking it within the 

 limits to which we can apply weight and measure, 

 the solar system. The vulgar opinion is that we 

 are the important part of this system ; and that all 

 the rest has been made and is conducted specially 

 for us ; that there is not an event which takes place 

 in the economy of our globe, or a character displayed, 

 or an action done by the highest or the humblest in- 

 dividual of the human race, without " the stars in 

 their courses" having a hand in it. They who once 

 swallow this, need, of course be under no apprehen- 

 sions of choking by the very largest mass of nonsense 

 that imagination can picture ; and they would do only 

 due honours to their gw/^ability, if they were to 

 label themselves ; " Nonsense swallowed here in 

 the largest possible quantities ;" in the active per- 

 formance of which, they might play the vulture, and 

 undo part of the mischief which they and their fore- 

 fathers in folly have done. Now when we come to 

 consider that the sun contains considerably more than 

 three hundred thousand times as much matter as our 

 earth, and that Jupiter, which is so remote from us as 

 to have but very little influence even in the matter 

 of gravitation, more than three hundred times, it 

 seems very absurd to suppose that any of these 

 bodies should have the least influence in the topical 

 changes which go on upon the surface, or in the 

 interior of our little globe ; and that they should take 

 cognisance of our doings as low down as 

 Cutting corns and letting blood, 



really appears to be the acme of absurdity. It is 

 worse than this, for it takes away our attention from 

 the real causes, and then cuts us off from all possi- 

 bility of obtaining that knowledge which would really 

 be useful to us. That the action of the sun upon the 

 earth as the dispenser of light and heat is, in itself, a 

 constant quantity, dependent solely upon the unalter- 

 able laws of the solar system, and capable of being 

 estimated for every latitude with perfect mathema- 

 tical accuracy ; and that it is the same, and has been 

 and will remain the same, in all years and ages, is a 

 principle which we must take along with us if we 

 wish to turn what we observe of seasons and plans 

 to the proper account. In addition to this, the sun 

 exerts its gravitating influence ; and the moon does 

 the same, and also cheers us by the variableness of 

 its borrowed light. But, in addition to this, these 

 bodies do nothing. All the rest is the effect of ter- 

 restrial causes ; and it is in these causes that we are 

 to seek our explanations as to why any one region is 

 fitted for one kind of plants and animals atone period 

 of histor.y, and for another kind at another period. 

 There is something humbler than this in philosophy, 

 but of more immediate practical use ; it is this kind of 



study which leads us to the proper means of so working 

 the soil to the solar influence, as to be able to obtain 

 the most abundant and permanent return from the 

 land ; to adopt, in short, such a mode of culture as 

 shall enable us to feed ourselves without impoverish- 

 ing our fields. It may not be either possible or 

 desirable to cultivate the northern lands back to the 

 state in which they were when they were tenanted by 

 the rhinoceros ; but the covering of the surface with 

 green leaves during the time of the sun's gmitest ardour, 

 has produced many wonderful effects in different places 

 of our own island ; and the invariable result has been, 

 that in proportion as cultivation has reduced the 

 heat of the summer, the intensity and duration of the 

 winter have been diminished ; so that an approxima- 

 tion has been made to permanent cultivation keep- 

 ing the earth in a state of producing something useful 

 all the year over. This is an incalculable advantage ; 

 for the long winter used to exhaust the whole of the 

 year's stock in the days of our fathers ; and the 

 summer, notwithstanding all its heat, was a season of 

 sorrow ; during which, famine carne in to destroy a 

 people who had no food, in the most heart-rending 

 manner. Then the rains of the autumn came with 

 terrible violence, scourging the fields and floating 

 away much of the produce ; and the transition from 

 burning heat to cold damp was so violent, that the 

 season of plenty was also a season of death. 



These are only a very few of the simpler points of 

 that knowledge to which the proper study of the 

 rhinoceros leads, as an easy and necessary matter ; and 

 we may apply, in the same manner, the history of any 

 other animal, which now appears only as a fragment 

 in a few peculiar localities, but which the remains 

 found in the earth prove to have been at one time 

 more generally distributed. We shall now notice 

 the species of rhinoceros, in as few words as possible. 



INDIAN RHINOCEROS, (R. Indicus). The old name 

 of this the first rhinoceros known to naturalists, was 

 Unicornus, or one-horned ; but the discovery of 

 another with only one horn, and yet with specific 

 differences sufficiently marked, rendered this name no 

 longer descriptive as a specific one. This powerful 

 animal is not distributed over the breadth of con- 

 tinental India, but confined to the marshy jungles in 

 the lower valleys of the great rivers, especially the 

 Ganges, and its affluent the Burhampootra. The 

 country there has a peculiar character among even 

 Indian countries. The rains come with both mon- 

 soons, the north-east as well as the south-west, and 

 they come in very great quantity ; so that, for the 

 greater part of the year every where, and the whole 

 of it in many places, the country is a swamp ; a 

 swamp which remains under the shade of that most 

 luxuriant vegetation which it produces, despite the 

 great heat of the sun. This is the grand residence 

 of the rhinoceros ; and it points out what must have 

 been the character of vegetation in those places from 

 which the rhinoceros has vanished, when that animal 

 was alive in them. 



The characters of this one are : a single horn on 

 the nose ; the skin is marked with deep furrows or 

 plaits behind the shoulders and the thighs ; and there 

 are also deep folds under the throat. The skin 

 is indeed folded and furrowed in many places, as if 

 it were too. large for the owner. The hairs on the 

 skin are hard and smooth ; but they are so few, 

 as scarcely to make any appearance, excepting a few 

 on the tail and the margins of the ears. The head 



