RHINOCEROS HOOFS AND HORNS 
rhinoceros, which roamed over Pleistocene Europe and Asia, and whose 
frozen remains, clothed in reddish wool mixed with stiff hairs, and armed 
with great horns, are found with those of the mammoth in the ice cliffs of 
the Siberian coast. A Siberian contemporary (Elasmotherium) must have 
much resembled it. 
The world’s present stock of rhinoceroses, then, are but 
widely scattered and varied remnants of past wealth. Two 
species are African and three East Indian, — the latter differ- 
ing from the former in having the skin thrown into great plate- 
like folds; in keeping the useful incisor teeth throughout life 
instead of losing them in 
infancy as do the African; 
and in having but one f 
nose horn (except the HY 
Sondaic). In all kinds |~~ ‘} ( 
the feet are round and Wi hi / ih 
Nall 
Vis ty 
« NI 
SHES ‘S 
Mat / 
massive, with the short i 
toes bound together and 
each incased in a hooflike 
nail; the central (third) toe is the largest, but a sole pad sus- 
tains the weight of the body. 
The nose horns are comparable to true horns only remotely, 
since they are simply outgrowths of the skin based upon a thick- 
ening of the nasal bones; and are composed of a 
bundle of tapering whalebonelike fibers which sprout 
from papillae, like feathers, and are firmly cemented together, 
growing at the base as fast as they wear away at the tip. 
ELASMOTHERIUM. 
Nose Horn. 
These horns are utilized by the Africans as handles for their knives 
and weapons, the longer ones being formed into clubs so highly valued 
that only chiefs possess them; and every Boer hunter tries to own a clean- 
ing rod for his rifle whittled from this tough material. The horn of the 
Asiatic species, like almost everything else in the furniture of strange ani- 
mals, has been held until very recent years to have medicinal and other 
curious virtues, among them that it would keep sweet water in which it 
was laid, and that it would betray the presence of poison by falling to 
377 
