THE GREAT HERBIVORES — | 169 
good bargain. My hopes proved to be illusory, however, for 
after much discussion the Zoo- 
logical Society of London, from 
whom I had expected to obtain 
a very high price, refused to give 
me more than £1,000, and even 
this sum they only offered me 
under the condition that I should 
deliver the animal in their Gar- 
dens in a good state of health. I 
did not even receive the purchase- 
money in hard cash, but to the 
extent of half the sum had to ac- 
cept other animals in exchange for Sounwy ‘Gamesctos on beanl 
my rhinoceros, so that altogether _ Ship. 
I cleared very little profit out of the transaction. . 
I remember this rhinoceros well, for he came near to doing 
me a nasty injury. He was quite a young animal and stood 
only about thirty-two inches at the shoulder, but nevertheless 
he blossomed out one day into a veritable athlete, a fact which 
I remember the more because he challenged me to a match, 
in which no doubt I should have come off second best had I 
not thought discretion the better part of valour. On the 
journey from Trieste to Vienna I travelled in the same com- 
partment with the young rhinoceros, for, thinking him to be a 
very especial treasure, I wished to take charge of him person- 
ally. 1 was dozing comfortably in a corner, when I was 
suddenly awakened by a pull, and saw that the young 
rhinoceros had the tail of my coat in his mouth and was cheer- 
fully sucking away at it. The animal appeared to find the 
flavour pleasant, but the operation not being precisely bene- 
ficial to my garment, I endeavoured, with all due politeness, 
to free the coat from the young herbivore’s jaws. The brute, 
however, was not disposed to submit to this privation; he 
flew suddenly into a terrific rage, gave a shrill cry of anger, 
and assaulted me with fury. I fully admit that I was not 
