398 THE RHINOCEROS. Chap. XXX 



great number of caterpillars a considerable variety of butter 

 flies is produced, none of them, however, being remarkable 

 for the gaudiness of their colours. 



In passing along we crossed the hill Vungue or Mvungwe, 

 which forms the watershed between those sand-rivulets which 

 run to the N.E. and others which flow southward, as the 

 Kapopo, Ue, and Due, which run into the Luia. We found 

 that many elephants had been feeding on a black-coloured 

 plum called Mokoronga, having purple juice and a delicious 

 flavour. It grows most abundantly throughout this part of 

 the country, and the natives eagerly devour it, as it is said to 

 be perfectly wholesome, or, as they express it, " pure fat." 

 Though hardly larger than a cherry, we found that the 

 elephants had stood picking them off patiently by the hour. 

 We observed the foot-prints of a black rhinoceros (Rhinoceros 

 bicornis, Linn.) and her calf, an animal which is remarkably 

 scarce in all the country north of the Zambesi. The white 

 rhinoceros (Rhinoceros simus of Burchell), or Mohohu of the 

 Bechuanas, is quite extinct here, and will soon become un- 

 known in the country to the south. It feeds almost entirely 

 on grasses, and, being of a timid unsuspecting disposition, falls 

 an easy prey on the introduction of fire-arms. The black 

 possesses a more savage nature, and from its greater wariness 

 keeps its ground better than its more timid neighbour. Four 

 varieties of the rhinoceros are enumerated by naturalists, but 

 my observation led me to conclude that there are but two ; 

 and that the other supposed species consist simply of differ- 

 ences in size, age, and the direction of the horns, just as if we 

 were to reckon the short-homed cattle a different species 

 from the Alderneys or the Highland breed. I find, however, 

 that Dr. Smith, the best judge in these matters, is quite 

 decided as to the propriety of the subdivision into three or 

 four species. The absence of both these rhinoceroses among 

 the reticulated rivers in the central valley may be accounted 

 for by the circumstance that they would be such an easy prey 

 to the natives in their canoes at the periods of inundation ; 

 but we cannot so readily explain the absence of the giraffe 

 and the ostrich on the high open lands of the Batoka, north 

 of the Zambesi, unless we give credence to the native report 

 that another network of waters exists still further north neai 



