464 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



their lost ground throughout the Lado, Uganda, and British 

 East Africa, having multiplied many times over. During 

 the same period, in the same region, the elephant have 

 not greatly diminished in aggregate numbers, although the 

 number of bulls carrying big ivory has been very much 

 reduced; indeed the reproductive capacity of the herds 

 has probably been very little impaired, the energies of the 

 hunters having been almost exclusively directed to the 

 killing of the bulls with tusks weighing over thirty pounds 

 apiece; and the really big tuskers, which are most eagerly 

 sought after, are almost always past their prime, and no 

 longer associate with the herd. 



But this does not apply to the great beast which was 

 the object of our coming to the Lado, the square-mouthed, 

 or, as it is sometimes miscalled, the white, rhinoceros. 

 Africa is a huge continent, and many species of the big 

 mammals inhabiting it are spread over a vast surface; and 

 some of them offer strange problems for inquiry in the 

 discontinuity of their distribution. The most extraordi- 

 nary instance of this discontinuity is that offered by the 

 distribution of the square-mouthed rhinoceros. It is almost 

 as if our bison had never been known within historic times 

 except in Texas and Ecuador. This great rhinoceros was 

 formerly plentiful in South Africa south of the Zambesi, 

 where it has been completely exterminated except for a 

 score or so of individuals on a game reserve. North of the 

 Zambesi it was and is utterly unknown, save that during 

 the last ten years it has been found to exist in several local- 

 ities on the left bank of the Upper Nile, close to the river, 

 and covering a north and south extension of about two hun- 

 dred miles. Even in this narrow ribbon of territory the 

 square-mouthed rhinoceros is found only in certain locali- 

 ties, and although there has not hitherto been much slaugh- 

 ter of the mighty beast, it would certainly be well if all 

 killing of it were prohibited until careful inquiry has been 

 made as to its numbers and exact distribution. It is a curi- 

 ous animal, on the average distinctly larger than, and utterly 



