6 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
directed stroke from the armed head of this terrible 
adversary. The horn does not adhere to the bone, 
but when the animal is in its ordinary state, stands 
loose between the nostrils ; the moment, however, 
that the rhinoceros is excited to resistance by the ap- 
proach or attack of a foe, the muscular tension is so 
great that the horn instantly becomes immovably 
fixed, and he is able to dart it into the trunk of a 
tree to the depth of several inches. 
The upper lip of this animal is of great length and 
remarkably pliant, acting like a short proboscis, by 
which he grasps the roots of trees and other esculent 
substances, and it is capable of contraction or expan- 
sion as circumstances may require. “ With this lip,” 
says Bruce, “ and the assistance of his tongue, he 
pulls down the upper branches which have most leaves, 
and these he devours first. Having stripped the tree of 
its branches, he does not directly abandon it, but, 
placing his snout as low in the trunk as he finds his 
horn will enter, he rips up the body of the tree and 
reduces it to thin pieces like so many laths ; and when 
he has thus prepared it, he embraces as much as he 
can of it in his monstrous jaws and twists it round 
with as much ease as an ox would do a root of 
celery.” 
The female generally produces only a single young 
one at a birth, which attains to a full state of ma- 
turity in about fifteen years. The rhinoceros is of 
a savage disposition and seems to exist merely to gra- 
tify a voracious appetite. When excited, it displays 
paroxysms of fury which render it highly dangerous 
for any one to approach. As it is of a temper 
