612 
THE EHINOCEEOS. 
Chap. XXX. 
The hunter then thought that by making a rush to his side he 
might succeed in escaping, but the rhinoceros, too quick for that, 
turned upon him, and though he discharged his gun close to the 
animal’s head he was tossed in the air. My friend was insen¬ 
sible for some time, and on recovering found large wounds on 
the thigh and body: I saw that on the former part still open 
and five inches long. The white, however, is not always quite 
safe, for one, even after it was mortally wounded, attacked Mr. 
Oswell’s horse, and tlmist the horn tln’ough to the saddle, tossing 
at the time both horse and rider. I once saw a wliite rhino¬ 
ceros give a buffalo which was gazing mtently at myself a poke 
in the chest, but it did not wound it, and seemed only a hint 
to get out of the way. Four varieties of the rhinoceros are 
enumerated by naturalists, but my observation led me to con¬ 
clude that there are but two; and that the extra species have been 
formed from differences in them sizes, ages, and the direction of 
the horns, as if we should reckon the short-horned cattle a different 
species from the Alderneys or the Highland breed. I was led to 
this, from having once seen a black rhinoceros with a horn bent 
downwards, like that of the kuabaoba, and also because the 
animals of the two great varieties differ very much in appearance 
at different stages of their growth. 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. For 
common readers it is sufficient to remember that there are two 
well-defined species, that differ entirely in appearance and food. 
The absence of both these rliinoceroses among the reticulated rivers 
in the central valley may easily be accounted for, they would be 
such an easy prey to the natives in their canoes at the periods of 
inundation; but one cannot so readily account for the total absence 
of the giraffe and the ostrich on the liigh open lands of the Batoka, 
north of the Zambesi, unless we give credence to the native report 
which bounds the country still further north by another network of 
waters near Lake Shuia, and suppose that it also prevented them 
progress southwards. The Batoka have no name for the giraffe 
or the ostrich in their language; yet, as the former exists in con¬ 
siderable numbers in the angle formed by the Leeambye and 
Chobe, they may have come from the north along the western 
ridge. The Chobe would seem to have been too narrow to act as 
