ZOOLOGICAL 
but a few mounted specimens, skeletons, and 
skulls are all that is preserved in the museums of 
the world. A very few still are alive in the 
Umfolosi reserve in Zululand. These being 
supposedly the last of their race, considerable 
surprise was aroused by the discovery of a 
northern form (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) 
by Major Gibbons when he stopped in 1900 at 
Lado, just west of the Nile. Since then Powell- 
Cotton, Solvay, Winston Churchill, Selous, de la 
Kethulle, Colonel Roosevelt, and the Congo 
Expedition (1909-1915) have established the 
fact of their relatively extended northern range. 
My companion, Mr. James P. Chapin, and I 
had the privilege of studying them thoroughly 
during exploration in the northeastern 
Uele, throughout a period of over two years, 
and the writer's previous experience with black 
or hook-lipped rhinoceroses (Diceros bicornis) 
during the Tjader East African Expedition 
also proved valuable by way of comparison. 
our 
The habitat of the white rhinoc- 
eros in the north is essentially 
similar in environmental and climatic conditions 
to that in the south. Though situated only a few 
degrees north of the moist equatorial regions, 
various factors, especially the proximity of the 
most extensive desert in the world, have helped 
to stamp upon it all the characteristic features 
of the African savannah, well scattered with 
scrub. As the haunts of the rare okapi are 
restricted to the northeastern Rain Forest, so 
the habitat of these white rhinoceros lies in the 
northeastern savannah of the Belgian Congo, 
and beyond it to the Nile. 
Habitat 
In general the country is fairly arid, espe- 
cially the large expanses of higher-lying brush 
country, and the rolling savannah, where one 
seldom can find a waterhole. In many places 
granular, brownish-red limonite is so predomi- 
nant as to form great boulder fields, in some 
features resembling those of volcanic origin. 
In lower-lying tracts, however, swamps are 
numerous, as may be expected in a territory 
representing a portion of the Congo-Nile divide. 
The most typical swamps are overgrown. with 
papyrus twelve feet high, and at a distance look 
like an uninterrupted stretch of grass country. 
The deepest portions are thus brought to an 
even level with the surrounding areas. Usually 
some clear water runs through the dense mass 
of stalks, but below the dirty scum-laden sur- 
face it is often lost in a mere brownish fluid. 
Near the more open places, where the cross- 
ings of rhinoceroses, elephants, buffaloes, and 
even giraffes are found, tropical luxuriance runs 
riot, marantaceous plants of a glossy dark ereen 
SOCIETY 
BULLETIN 69 
cover small tracts; blue, yellow, and whitish 
flowers of water-lilies being common. Clusters 
of graceful Phoenix palms there tower above 
all other vegetation. 
To the north northeast some of the 
swamps forming the sources of the affluents of 
the Congo and the Nile are separated by only 
low undulations, in some places no more than fif- 
teen feet wide. In years of extra heavy rain- 
fall, the two river systems may thus be con- 
nected, especially as here the rise of the waters 
is often surprisingly rapid. As a result there 
are a large number of species of fishes common 
to both watercourses. 
and 
oe In the Uele district. typical 
he mountains are unknown and even 
District the highest elevations, which reach 
an altitude of 8000 feet above 
sea-level. look rather like rounded hills. Many 
of these are merely enormous granite boulders 
About Aba, especially 
to the south, such hills are fairly barren, and 
from one of the highest a panorama including 
seventy others may be enjoyed. Some of them, 
however, are with vegetation, most 
often in the ravines, and even one of the great- 
est, Gaima, is crowned with trees. 
In the northeastern Uele and 
southern Bahr-el-Ghazal we find 
the striking contrasts of dry and 
rainy seasons typical of savan- 
nah regions, with grass ten to fifteen feet in 
height, and low bushes and trees. The wet 
period starts towards April, with heavy rains 
from June to October, or further north to No- 
vember. The terrific rains and the fury of the 
storms beat down the tall grass and entangle 
it still further. The vegetation becomes more 
impenetrable, the swamps are full of water, 
the brooks and rivers often impassable, and 
or grass-covered ridges. 
covered 
Seasons 
and 
Vegetation 
the highways few. The cutting blades of grass 
lacerate the natives’ skin, and are a 
check to travel. Hunting is fraught with dan- 
gers, for the height of the jungle cuts off the 
view and one is exposed to unexpected encoun- 
ters. The country now bears all the marks 
of devastation from the continued passage of 
the big game. Bushes and trees take on true 
autumnal colors and all that relieves the gen- 
eral monotonoy of the scene are a few groups 
of flowering bushes and plants. 
With the early part of the dry 
season, stretch after stretch of 
the minor forms of vegetation in 
this immense area is slowly consumed by the 
serious 
Savannah 
Fires 
crackling and roaring fires set everywhere by 
natives. Hundreds of kites, other birds of 
