600 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



the valley of the Limpopo, Harris gives us the following 

 graphic sketch : 



The country now literally presented the appearance of a 

 menagerie ; the host of rhinoceroses in particular that daily 

 exhibited themselves, almost exceeding belief. Whilst the 

 camp was being formed, an ugly head might be seen pro- 

 truded from every bush, and the possession of the ground 

 was often stoutly disputed. In the field, these animals lost 

 no opportunity of making themselves obnoxious — frequently 

 charging at my elbow, when in the act of drawing the trigger 

 at some object — and pursuing our horses with indefatigable 

 and ludicrous industry, carrrying their noses close to the 

 ground, moving with a mincing gait, which ill-beseemed so 

 ungainly and ponderous a quadruped, and uttering the while, 

 a sound between a grunt and a smothered whistle. In remov- 

 ing the horn with an axe, the brain was discovered seated in 

 a cavity below it, &,t the very extremity of the snout — a phe- 

 nomenon in the idiosyncracy of this animal, which may in 

 some measure account for its want of intelligence and piggish 

 obstinacy, as well as for the extraordinary acuteness of smell 

 with which it is endowed. Irrascible beyond all other quad- 

 rupeds, the African rhinoceros appears subject even to unpro- 

 voked paroxysms of reckless fury ; but the sphere of vision is 

 so exceedingly limited, that its attacks, though sudden and 

 impetuous, are easily eluded, and a shot behind the shoulder, 

 discharged from the distance of twenty or thirty yards, 

 generally proves fatal. 



On our way from the wagons 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 another occasion, I was besieged in a 

 bush by three at once, and had no little difficulty in beating 

 oflf the assailants. 



But we will dismiss this fierce, grotesque, and ridiculous 

 animal, with the following striking remark from Mofiat, which 



