CHAPTER XXVIII 



THE BLACK LIST 



There remains another category of animals with 

 which the settler is only too well acquainted. This 

 list comprises those which have much to condemn 

 them, but provide nothing through which these 

 disadvantages may be counterbalanced. As a lover of 

 animals it has been my aim to make this list as short 

 as possible, and animals have been included in worthier 

 lists which would by the majority of settlers have been 

 placed in this, the Black List. 



Of all the suspects, least can be urged in favour of 

 the Rhinoceros. It is to be feared that, from a settlers 

 point of view, he has nothing whatever to recommend 

 him. He is destructive, and no fence has yet been 

 erected which will withstand his onslaught. He offers 

 no kind of sport whatever himself, and at the same 

 time may be a very considerable nuisance when the 

 pursuit of some worthier trophy is in process. His 

 hide, it is true, makes excellent riding whips and most 

 odoriferous table-tops, but his whole skin is usually 

 too bulky to be removed, and one could hardly shoot 

 such an enormous brute for the sake of half-a-dozen 

 riding whips. As to the comestible properties of his 

 flesh, it can only be said, as Nebuchadnezzar, when on 



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