THE ROMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



artist, another drawing likewise copied from the 

 walls of an African cave. In this were repre- 

 sented, with exceedingly characteristic fidelity, 

 several of the common antelopes of the country, 

 such as a group of elands, the hartebeest, and the 

 springbok; while among them appeared, with 

 head and shoulders towering above the rest, an 

 animal having the general character of a rhinoce- 

 ros, but, in form, lighter than a wild bull, having 

 an arched neck, and a long nasal horn projecting 

 in the form of a sabre. "This drawing," observes 

 the Colonel, "is no doubt still extant, and should 

 be published ; but, in confirmation of the opinion 

 that truth exists to a certain extent in the fore- 

 going remarks, it may be observed that we have 

 seen, we believe in the British Museum, a horn 

 brought from Africa, unlike those of any known 

 species of rhinoceros : it is perfectly smooth and 

 hard, about thirty inches in length, almost equally 

 thick throughout, not three inches in its greatest 

 diameter, nor less than two in its smaller, and 

 rather sharp pointed at top: from the narrow- 

 ness of the base, its great length and weight, the 

 horn must evidently stand moveable on the nasal 

 bones, until excitement renders the muscular ac- 

 tion more rigid, and the coriaceous sole which 

 sustains it more firm, — circumstances which may 

 explain the repeated assertion of natives, that the 

 horn, or rather the agglutinated hair which forms 

 that instrument, is flexible.* 



Much more recently, accounts have reached 

 Europe of the same nature, confirmatory of the 

 former, inasmuch as much of the value of such 

 evidence consists in its cumulative character ; but 

 still only hearsay report. M. Antoine d'Abbadie, 

 writing to the Athenaeum from Cairo, gives the 

 * "Cyclop. Bibl. Lit.," Art. Reem. 

 272 



