THIOK-iSn.rNNED QUADRUPEDS. 187 



m mud, with which their rugged hides are encrusted. Both vari- 

 eties of the Blajk Rhinoceros are much smaller and more activfe 

 than the white, and are so swift that a horse with a rider on its 

 back can rarely overtake them. The two varieties of the White 

 Rhinoceros are so similar in habits, that the description of one will 

 serve for both, the principal difference consisting in the length 

 and set of the anterior horn ; that of the common White Rhino- 

 neros averaging from two to three feet in length, and pointing 

 backwards ; while the horn of the long-horned White Rhinoceros 

 often exceeds four feet in length, and inclines forward from the 

 nose. 



Both these varieties of Rhinoceros attain an enormous 

 rtize, being the animals next in magnitude to the elephant. They 

 feed solely on grass, carry much fat, and their flesh is excellent, 

 being preferable to beef. They are of a much milder and more 

 inoffensive disposition than the Black Rhinoceros, rarely charging 

 their pursuer. Their speed is very inferior to that of the other 

 varieties, and a person well mounted can overtake and shoot them. 



The Hippopotamus is above seventeen feet long, from 

 the extremity of the snout to the insertion of the tail; sixteen 

 feet in circumference round the body, and seven feet high : the 

 head is four feet long, and nine in circumference. The jaws open 

 about two feet wide, and the cutting-teeth, of which it has four in 

 sach jaw, are over a foot long. Its feet in some measure resemble 

 .hose of the elephant, and are divided into four parts. The tail 

 « (ihort, flat, and pointed ; the hide is amazingly thick, and though 

 •lot capable of turning a musket ball, is impenetrable to the blow 

 of a sabre ; the body is covered over with a few scattered hairs of 

 a whitish color. The whole figure of the animal is a cross between 

 that of an ox and a hog, and its cry is a mixture of the bellowing 

 of the one, and the grunting of the other. 



It chiefly resides at the bottom of the great rivers and 

 lakes of Africa, the Nile, the Niger, and the Zara ; where it leads 

 an indolent kind of life, and seems seldom disposed for action, 

 except when excited by the calls of hunger. Upon such occasiona. 

 three or four of them are often seen at the bottom of a river, near 



