APPENDIX. 



95 



beads of nearly equal flrength fight or deflroy each other, 

 cannot be doubted ; and accordingly we fee that the Romans 

 made thefe two animals fight at mows and public games : 

 but this is not nature, but the artifice of man ; there mufl 

 be fome better reafon for this extraordinary conftruclion of 

 thefe two animals, as well as the different one of that of fo 

 many others. They have been placed in extenfive woods and 

 deferts, and there they hide themfelves in the moft inaccef- 

 fible places ; food in great plenty is round about them ; they 

 are not carnivorous, they are not rivals in love ; what motive 

 can they have for this conftant premeditated defire of fight- 

 ing? 



I have faid the rhinoceros does not eat hay or grafs, but 

 lives entirely upon trees ; he does not fpare the molt thorny 

 ones, but rather feems to be fond of them ; and it is not a 

 fmall branch that can efcape his hunger, for he has tlie 

 ftrongeft jaws of any creature I know, and beft adapted to 

 grinding or bruifing any thing that makes refiftance. He 

 has twenty-eight teeth in all, fix of which are grinders, and 

 I have feen fhort indigefted pieces of wood full three inches 

 diameter voided in his excrements,. and the fame of the ele- 

 phant. 



But befides thefe trees, capable of moft refiftance, there 

 are in thefe vail forefts within the rains, trees of a for ter con* 

 fiftence, and of a very fucculent quality, which feem to be 

 deftined for his principal food. 'For the purpofe of gaining 

 the higheft branches of thefe, his upper lip is capable of 

 being lengthened out fo as to increafe his power of laying 

 hold with this in the fame manner as the elephant dees 

 with his trunk. With this lip,, and the ailiftance of his 

 i tongue,. 



