THE RHINOCEROS. 



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would utterly ruin the best constructed roads, it is very doubtful whether his services 

 are in proportion to his cost, and Sir Emerson Tennent is of opinion that two vigorous 

 dray horses would, at less expense, do more effectual work than any elephant. Most 

 likely from a comparative calculation of this kind, the strength of the elephant estab- 

 lishments in Ceylon has been gradually diminished of late years, so that the govern- 

 ment stud, which formerly consisted of upwards of sixty elephants, is at present re- 

 duced to less than one- quarter of that number. 



A LITTLE HEAD WORK. 



The Rhinoceros has about the same range as the elephant, but is found also in the 

 island of Java, where the latter is unknown. Although not possessed of the ferocity 

 of carnivorous animals, the rhinoceros is completely wild and untamable ; the image 

 of a gigantic hog, without intelligence, feeling or docility ; and if in bodily size and 

 colossal strength it, of all other land animals, most nearly approaches the elephant, it 

 is infinitely his inferior in point of sagacity. The latter, with his beautiful, good- 

 natured, intelligent eye, awakens the sympathy of man ; while the rhinoceros might 

 figure as the very symbol of brutal violence and stupidity. 



It was formerly supposed that Africa had but one rhinoceros, but the researches- 

 of modern travelers have discovered no less than four different species, two white and' 

 two black, each of them with two horns. The black species are the Borelo of the 

 Bechuanas, and the Keitloa, which is longer, with a larger neck and almost equal 

 horns. In both species the upper lip projects over the lower, and is capable of being 

 extended like that of the giraffe, thus enabling the animal to pull down the branches 

 on whose foliage he intends to feast. Both the Borelo and the Keitloa are extremely 

 ill-natured, and, with the exception of the buffalo, the most dangerous of all the wild 

 animals of South Africa. The white species are the Monoho (R. simus,) and the 

 Kobaaba {R. Oswellis,) which is distinguished by one of its horns attaining the. 

 prodigious length of four feet. 



Although the black and white rhinoceros are members of the same family, their 

 mode of living and disposition are totally different. The food of the former consists 

 almost entirely of roots, which they dig up with their larger horn, or of the branches. 

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