52 Great and Small Game of Africa 



without coming up with it, certainly not less than 25 miles in all, prob- 

 ably many more. A ^ H _ Straker. 



The White or Square-Mouthed Rhinoceros {Rhinoceros simus), 



SOMETIMES CALLED BtlRCHELL's RHINOCEROS 



Wit rhenoster of the Cape Dutch ; Chukuru of Bechuanas ; 

 Vmhofo of Matabele 



The great white or square-mouthed rhinoceros is a form which appears 

 to have been evolved in the southern portion of Africa, for, although many 

 other parts of that vast continent would seem to be eminently suited to its 

 habits, it has not yet been met with anywhere to the north of the Zambesi, 

 in Central and Eastern South Africa, or north of the 17th parallel of south 

 latitude in the more westerly portions of the country. To the south ot 

 that line, however, this huge mammal was plentiful a century ago all over 

 South Africa north of the Orange River, except in waterless or mountainous 

 districts. In 181 2 Dr. Burchell first met with this species in the Batlapeen 

 country, not far from the present native town and mission -station of 

 Kuruman. Probably the range of the white rhinoceros once extended 

 even farther south than this point, but I should doubt its ever having been 

 an inhabitant of the country lying immediately to the north or south of the 

 Orange River, below its junction with the Vaal, as those districts are very 

 arid and do not produce much grass. At any rate all the rhinoceroses met 

 with south of the Orange River by the earlier travellers in South Africa — 

 including Dr. Burchell — seem to have been of the prehensile-lipped or so- 

 called black species. I do not know whether the emigrant Boers, when in 

 1836 they first entered the country now known as the Orange Free State, 

 met with the white rhinoceros, but I am inclined to believe that they did, 

 as I have had places pointed out to me just north of the Vaal River, on the 



