The White Rhinoceros 57 



them. In June 1892, however, my term of service with the British South 

 Africa Company being completed, and having a clear month at my 

 disposal, I left Salisbury with native guides who knew exactly where the 

 few white rhinoceroses still left were to be found, fully determined to 

 secure the skin and skeleton of at least one of these animals. Unfortunately, 

 a fell from my horse whilst chasing an ostrich bruised my leg so badly 

 that I could not put my foot to the ground for more than three weeks, and 

 when I recovered there was no time to go on to the white rhinoceros 

 country and then return to Salisbury in time to carry out an engagement 

 to take a shooting party to the Pungwe River. Therefore the two white 

 rhinoceroses which I shot in 1882 are the last of their species that I have 

 ever seen alive, or am ever likely to see, and when I left Africa towards 

 the end of 1892 I fully expected that these animals would become extinct 

 within a short time, and remain for ever unrepresented in the collection of 

 any European Museum. 



Fortunately, however, this fear has proved to have been unfounded. 

 In August 1892 two members of Mr. Rhodes's Pioneer Force which 

 occupied Mashunaland in 1890 were returning to Salisbury from a trip to 

 the Zambesi. These gentlemen were Messrs. R. T. Coryndon and Arthur 

 Eyre, both of them good field naturalists as well as good hunters and 

 pioneers, and when about 100 miles to the north-west of Salisbury, they 

 ran right into a family of white rhinoceroses — a bull, a cow, and 

 a calf. The bull and the cow were both wounded, but got away, 

 whilst the calf was killed by mistake by a stray bullet. Whilst 

 following the wounded animals on the next day Messrs. Coryndon and 

 Eyre came on to a large cow, accompanied by a half- grown animal 

 and a very young calf. Eyre shot the big cow, and the small calf 

 was captured alive, not without considerable difficulty, but it unfortu- 

 nately died in a few days' time. The skin and skeleton of the cow 

 were preserved, but had to be abandoned, as it was found impossible 



