RHINOCEROS. 
85 
formidable, on account of their hard skin, which 
will resist even a musket-ball. The only pene- 
trable parts of the body are the belly, the eyes, 
and about the ears. Hence the hunters, instead 
of attacking them face to face, follow them at a 
distance by the tracks of their feet, and watch till 
they lie down to sleep. We are informed that 
twenty-eight hunters, having assembled to attack a 
female rhinoceros, followed her at a distance for 
some days, detaching one or two of their number, 
from time to time, in order to reconnoitre her 
situation : by these means they surprised her when 
asleep, and silently approached so near, that the 
whole twenty-eight muskets were discharged at once 
into the lower part of her belly, 
Mr. Bingley, in his Animal Biography, has given 
an interesting account of the rhinoceros which was 
brought into this country in the year 1790 , in the 
Melville Castle East Indiaman. This creature was 
sent as a present to Mr. Dundas, who, not wishing 
to have the trouble of keeping him, gave the ani- 
mal away. He was afterwards purchased by Mr. 
Pidcock for seven hundred pounds, and exhibited in 
Exeter Change. 
The animal when first brought to England was 
about five years old. He was tolerably tractable, 
would at the command of his keeper walk about 
the room, and exhibit himself to the numerous 
spectators who came to visit him, and even allow 
them to pat him on the back and sides. His daily 
allowance was twenty-eight pounds weight of clover. 
