6z Great and Small Game of Africa 



Gumming, and there is a good illustration of it at page 330 of his well- 

 known work on South African hunting. In disposition the white rhino- 

 ceros was undoubtedly sluggish, timid, and as a general rule the reverse of 

 vicious, as the very small number of accidents which have taken place 

 in the last sixty years during the extermination of this once numerous 

 species sufficiently proves. 



It is true that the late Mr. Oswell had one of his horses transfixed by 

 the horn of one of these animals ; whilst the veteran elephant hunter, Mr. 

 Hartley, was also severely injured by a white rhinoceros in Mashunaland 

 about thirty years ago. I remember too to have seen one that I had 

 wounded in 1874 make a charge at one of my gun-carriers, who threw 

 down his gun and climbed a tree. These, however, were only rare 

 exceptions to the general rule, and do not disprove the fact that, speaking 

 generally, the white rhinoceros was a very harmless and inoffensive 

 animal. 



The individual differences between the horns of white rhinoceroses were 

 very great. The anterior horns of the bulls might measure from 1 8 inches 

 to 40 inches in length, when full grown ; those of the cows from 24 to 

 nearly 60 inches. As a rule the front horn curved slightly backwards, but 

 was often straight and sometimes bent slightly forwards, at other times 

 strongly curved backwards. The posterior horn varied from a mere lump 

 3 or 4 inches in height to a horn of 2 feet in length. The longest white 

 rhinoceros horn known is, I believe, now in the possession of Colonel 

 W. Gordon-Cumming. This remarkable specimen, which measures 62^ 

 inches in length over the curve, was brought from South Africa by that 

 well-known hunter, the late Roualeyn Gordon-Cumming. The next longest 

 is in the collection of the British Museum. It is that of a white 

 rhinoceros cow, and measures 56^ inches over the curve. Another fine 

 horn in the possession of Colonel Gordon dimming — also brought home 

 by Roualeyn Gordon-Cumming — measures 52^ inches. These two horns — 



