NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



applied to this animal is uncertain, for it is of a dark, 

 slaty-grey colour, and certainly could not by any 

 stretch of the imagination be called white. 



Selous says that when standing in the open, with 

 the sun shining fully upon them on a winter morning, 

 they look white at a distance. Possibly seeing them 

 thus, out upon the grassy veld, the Boer hunters 

 bestowed the name of Witte Rhenoster on them 

 a name which is certainly inappropriate. Personally, 

 I believe the name has arisen from the habit of the 

 animal wallowing in whitish clay, which is so com- 

 mon on the bottoms of pools and water-holes. On 

 emerging from its muddy-water bath the sun and 

 air rapidly dries the film of clay on its hide, which 

 at a distance shows up greyish-white. 



Square-lipped Rhinoceros is a suitable name, for 

 the upper lip of this great beast is square, and not 

 of a proboscis-like nature as in the other species. 



Before the advent of the European colonists to 

 South Africa, the White Rhinoceros was quite 

 common beyond the Orange River, and the writings 

 of the early travellers and hunters teem with 

 accounts of the slaughter of considerable numbers 

 of these animals. 



During the course of a day's trek with a wagon, 

 it was a common occurrence to see from fifty to a 

 hundred of them. 



Between 1840 and 1850 these prehistoric-looking 

 beasts were still abundant in suitable localities in 

 the Limpopo and Lake Ngami regions. 

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