R H I 
the department, about 1900 square miles, is diversified with 
hills, forests, and small vallies, all picturesque, and in 
general well cultivated. On the mountains, the soil is 
bare and stony; in the vicinity of the Rhine it is in certain 
places marshy, but in general it is fertile, and the average 
produce of com exceeds the consumption of the inhabitants, 
whose number, however, is nearly 40,000. Agriculture 
is less backward here than in most parts of France. The 
products are wheat, barley, oats, hemp, flax, tobacco, 
madder,>and rape-seed. In the mountains are mines of iron, 
copper, coal, and salt. The pastures are extensive, and on 
the warmer exposures vines are cultivated. Of the manu¬ 
factures, the chief are hardware and linen. Cotton has 
been introduced since the close of the ] 8th century, and 
there are likewise fabrics of pottery, glass, china-ware, 
paper, &c. all affording materials for a considerable export. 
This department, situated to the east of the Vosges, the 
natural limit of France, is inhabited by Germans, and 
French is spoken only in the large towns. In regard to 
religion, the Lutherans are computed at 160,000, the 
Calvinists at 25,000, and the rest, with the exception of the 
Jews, are Catholics. This department is divided into four 
arrondissements, viz. Strasburg the capital, Saverne, Bar, 
and Weissemburg. The treaty of Paris in 1815 curtailed 
it of Landau, and of a track of country to the north of 
Weissemburg. 
RHINE, Upper, Haut lihin, another department in 
the north-east of France, which, like the preceding, is of 
an oblong form, the Rhine flowing along its eastern limit, 
and the long chain of the Vosges extending on its western 
side, in a course nearly parallel to that river. Its.extent is 
about 1700 square miles. It contains the southern division 
of Alsace, and like the northern, has a stony soil on the 
mountains, but in the plains and vallies, a rich and fertile 
mould. Its chief rivers, after the Rhine, are the Ill, the 
Laber, the Lauch, and the Largue. It has likewise several 
canals, and two small lakes. Agriculture is less backward 
here than in the interior of France; corn, hemp, flax, 
rape-seed, also wines and tobacco, being raised in large 
quantities. Cherries are so abundant, that the liquor called 
cherry water forms a considerable article of export. The 
mineral products are iron, coal, and, in a small degree, 
copper, lead, and antimony. Of coal, the quantity 
annually extracted from the mines is about 1000 tons; but 
of iron, above 5000 tons. Linen, wooden, and latterly 
cottons, are made in quantities; and on a smaller scale, 
paper, leather, and glass. Placed, like the preceding 
department, beyond the natural limit of France, the inha¬ 
bitants (in number 320,000), are almost all of German 
descent, and French is spoken only in the towns. The 
Protestant part of the inhabitants are computed at 57,000 ; 
the Jews at 10,000; the Anabaptists at 3000; the Catholics 
at 250,000. The department is divided into the four 
arrondissements of Colmar, Altkirch, Neufbrisach, and 
Befort. 
RHINE, a name given by Aristotle, Appian, and most of 
the Greek writers, to that species of the squalus, which we 
usually call the squatina •. the squatus of Isidore and Pliny. 
Artedi has distinguished this from all the other species of the 
squalus, by the having no pinna ani, and the mouth in the 
extremity of the snout. 
RHINEBECK, a township of the United States, in 
Dutchess county. New York, on the east side of the Hudson; 
67 miles south of Albany. 
RHlNE-GRAVE, in Germany, a count palatine of the 
Rhine. 
RHINE-LAND Rod, in Fortification, &c. a measure of 
two fathom, or twelve feet, used by the Dutch and German 
engineers, &c. 
RHINESTQWN, a township of the United States in 
Cumberland county. 
RHINGAU, the name given by some authors to the lava- 
retus, a small fish caught in the German lakes, and sent in 
pickle into many parts of the world. 
RHINOBATOS, the name of a flat cartilaginous fish, of 
R H I 
55 
the squatina or monk-fish kind, but differing from it in this, 
that the body is proportionably longer, and the head is more 
pointed; and the mouth is a great way beyond the end of 
the snout, and placed under the head. It is from three to 
four feet long, and is common in the Mediterranean, and 
brought to market in some parts of Naples. This is a spe¬ 
cies of ray in the Linnaean system. See Raia. 
RHINO'CEROS, s. [jay and Kegca;, Gr.] A vast beast in 
the East Indies, armed with a horn on his nose. 
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, 
The arm’d rhinoceros, or Hyrcanian tyger; 
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves 
Shall never tremble. Sha/cspearc, 
The Rhinoceros is a genus of animals of the class 
mammalia, order brute, and is distinguished into two species 
by the number of the horns: both species have the hoof cleft 
into three. 
1. Rhinoceros unicornis, or one-horned rhinoceros. 
This animal is among the largest of quadrupeds. His body 
equals the bulk of the elephant; and, were not his legs 
shorter, he would exhibit a no less stately figure. A single, 
black, smooth horn, sometimes three feet and a half long, 
and situated near the extremity of (he nose, constitutes his 
specific character: the upper lip is disproportionably large, 
hanging over the lower, and terminating in a point: it is 
furnished with muscles, which enables the animal to move it 
with great dexterity in collecting his food, and introducing it 
into the mouth: the nostrils are in a trasverse direction: the 
ears are large, erect, and pointed : the skin is naked, rough, 
and extremely thick: about the neck it is gathered into 
enormous folds; a fold extends between the shoulders and 
the fore legs, and another from the hinder part of the back to 
the thighs: the tail is slender, flat at the end, and covered on 
the sides with very stiff, black, hairs. In consequence of the 
vast bulk of the body, and the disproportionate shortness of 
the legs, the belly hangs low. The breadth of the feet does 
not exceed the circumference of the legs. 
This animal was well known to the ancients. Several of 
the sacred writers make frequent allusions to him, as an 
animal familiarly known to the people to whom their 
writings were directly addressed. They have not indeed 
condescended to a minute description; but the terms in 
which they have mentioned it sufficiently indicate the 
species. Pliny mentions the rhinoceros as an animal that 
appeared in the Roman circus, in games exhibited by Poin- 
pey. He was opposed to the elephant, and shewed himself 
no unequal antagonist. Though not described by Aristotle, 
the rhinoceros is mentioned by the historians of Alexander, 
as one. of the strange animals discovered by his army in their 
progress into India. . 
The rhinoceros is a native inhabitant of Bengal, Siam, 
Cochinchina, Quangsi in China, and the isles of Java and 
Sumatra. He is a solitary, stupid, animal. Shady forests 
adjoining to rivers, and miry, marshy plains, are [his 
favourite haunts. Unless provoked by injuries, he is com¬ 
monly mild and inoffensive: his rage is desperate and 
dangerous. The mode in which copulation takes place be¬ 
tween the two sexes is backwards; the female produces only 
one at a birth. During the first month of its age, the young 
rhinoceros does not rise above the size of a large dog : the 
horn is at first almost imperceptible, and increases by slow 
gradations: the bulk of the animal is indeed but very slowly 
enlarged ; at the age of two years he has scarcely attained 
half his foil height: his eyes are small, and his sight dull: 
but he possesses the senses both of hearing and smelling in 
high perfection; thorns and prickly shrubs are his chief food; 
his tongue was once -said to be rough and hard ; but, from 
later and more accurate observation, we learn, that it is as 
smooth and soft as the tongue of any other animal. It has 
been conjectured, that sixty or seventy years may be the 
natural term of the life of the rhinoceros. His skin has been 
represented as impenetrable, even by balls; but we now 
find that this vast animal is liable to be mortally wounded 
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