ORDER VII. CETJE. NARWAL. 131 



was transporting it ; and a rhinoceros exhibited some years 

 ago in Paris was drowned in a similar manner, while on a 

 voyage to Italy. 



This huge beast is fond of wallowing in the mire like a 

 hog ; and testifies a marked predilection for moist, marshy 

 grounds, never quitting the banks of rivers. The species 

 is not very numerous, but it is found in both Asia and 

 Africa. The female produces but one at a time, and that 

 at considerable intervals. During the first month the 

 young rhinoceros is much about the size of a mastiff. 



Destitute of every beneficial quality, the rhinoceros 

 consumes an immense quantity of provisions while alive, 

 and its flesh is of no value when dead. Its skin, indeed, 

 forms the hardest and best leather in the world ; and, among 

 the ignorant natives of the countries where it is found, 

 almost every part of its body is reckoned an antidote 

 against poison, or beneficial in some diseases. 



Having no appetite for flesh, but subsisting on vegeta- 

 bles alone, it neither disturbs the small, nor dreads the 

 largest animals. It is rather solitary than savage, and 

 never attacks mankind unless in its own defence. 



The two-horned rhinoceros is a scarce animal. It is 

 found only in Africa; and was a long time supposed to be 

 merely a fabulous creature, till observed by Dr. Sparrman 

 at the Cape of Good Hope, and described in his travels. 



ORDER VII. CET^E. 



THIS order includes the whale-kind, the cachalot, and 

 the dolphin. Though inhabitants of the deep, they are 

 viviparous, respire through lungs like quadrupeds, and 

 suckle their young. 



THE NARWAL, OR SEA-UNICORN. 



lii size this animal is inferior to the whale ; seldom ex- 

 ceeding sixty feet in length, and the body is more slender, 

 G 6 



