CHAPTER IV 



RHINOCEROS — HIPPOPOTAMUS 



The eminent French naturalist Cuvier describes 

 the black rhinoceros, the only variety existing 

 in the districts to which this book devotes itself, 

 as an animal of solitary habits, and much fiercer 

 than the other four known members of this 

 unlovely and unnecessary, if interesting, family. 

 Speaking of these beasts as a whole, the authority 

 mentioned draws particular attention to the 

 singular peculiarity, not widely known, found 

 in the so-called horns. As a matter of fact, the 

 terrible weapons which the rhinoceros carries 

 upon his thick nasal bone are not composed of 

 horn at all. They are formed of hairs — long, 

 coarse hairs glued, as it were, together by some 

 curiously powerful conglutinating substance, and 

 presenting, except at the base, all the appear- 

 ance of horn of the hardest description. If, 

 however, a section of this substance be ex- 

 amined under a microscope, the capillary 

 tubes composing it, glued together, are at 

 once readily discernible. The foregoing is 

 perhaps the chief peculiarity of this re- 

 markable animal, the singular position of 

 whose defensive weapons doubtless inspired 

 the legends of ancient times which con- 



