XIII 



CAPTURING THE RHINOCEROS 



MY friend Dr. L. Heck wrote in 1896, in his book 

 The Animal Kingdom, the words, "The day will 

 be a memorable one for our zoological gardens (in Ber- 

 lin) which sees the acquisition by them of a rhinoceros 

 from German East Africa." In the same year I went to 

 East Africa for the first time. All efiiorts made so far 

 to bring a young elephant or a young rhinoceros alive 

 from British or German East Africa to Europe had 

 been unsuccessful. I fully realized the enormous diffi- 

 culty of accomplishing this task, but on my fourth 

 journey to the " Dark Continent" I succeeded in bring- 

 ing away a young rhinoceros which, at last reports, is 

 still disporting itself in the Berlin zoological gardens. 

 But neither I nor any one else has so far been able 

 to bring a young elephant alive from East Africa to 

 Europe. 



It is exceedingly difficult not only to capture a young 

 rhinoceros, but equally hard, and even harder to raise 

 it. For it needs a milk diet, and milk is a rare article 

 in a country where the transportation and keeping of 



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