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vering when excited, it was wont to rash forth with loud snorts and whistles as though it had been the sole object of 
hostilities, whereas in reality no sonl had done more than ken of its presence. Neither, like the black Rhinoceros, did it . 
hesitate upon occasion to defend a pass with determined obstinacy, or to pursue our horses with Indierous and fruitless industry, 
evincing a spitfiré disposition almost peculiar to the class of which it is no unworthy member. Old Chaucer in his “ Nonne’s 
Preeste’s Tale” has truly enough observed, 
“Por niturely a beest desireth flee 
Fro" His. contratie if he may if see," 
and it is certain that even the most ferocious and blood-thirsty of the ‘prone and mute creation’ when disturbed in the native 
haunts, unless sore pressed by hunger, are mutch more frequently disposed to make way for man than to oppose him. The 
savage natives of Africa who regard neither species with much areas. wage a successful war against them with the assagui; 
nd pitfalls containing pointed stakes, constructed purposely for the accommodation of the unwieldy beasts were of very frequent 
occurrence. Strewed with huge skulls and bones, they differed from those excavated for the smaller quadrupeds in being dug 
singly, instead of in groups—of increased dimensions— at the extremity of a narrow path cleared through the bushes and - 
stoutly fenced on either side with thorns; a sharp turn leading so directly upon the hidden sepulchre, that the clumsy monster, 
if driven furiously down the avenne, can have little’ chance of evading it— 
*Suelte shalarly baled: betray’d, . 
Heedlese of fate within its gaping jaws, 
Expires indignant.” 
, In no region of the globe does there exist so yast a variety of herbivorous ‘quadrupeds, and of such gigantic dimen- 
sions as in the southern regions of Africa —the poor and seanty vegetation afforded by her wide plains, rendering it matter 
of some astonishment how such a goodly host_ can find sobsistence.. Notwithstanding that the growth of herbage is there 
surprisingly rapid, and that animals of the greatest bulk undoubtedly wander over a large extent of country in quest of their 
daily food, one cannot help surmising that a foraging party comprising a dozen monsters such as this, ‘ eating grass like an 
ox, would in less than a week devour eyery blade of which the continent sonth of the Tropie can boast! Gregarious in 
small groups, so many as six or seven might frequently be seen herding together; and in the vicinage of the Cashan modstaing 
especially, where on our first arriyal the country absolutely presented the appearance of a Zoological Garden, or a Travelling 
Menagerie turned loose, an abstract of the host that daily exhibited themselves would almost exceed belief. Eighty were on one 
occasion seen doring the day's march, and on my way from our encampment in the wally of the Limpopo to a hill only half 
a mile distant, no fewer than twenty-two were counted, of which we were compelled tn self defence to slaughter four.* 
It was shortly after we had crossed the Mariqua, that the first white Rhinoceros seen by our party was numbered with 
~ the dead. _Numerous savages had followed in our train with the design of obtaining a supply of dried flesh, and being already 
tolerably well laden with prime joints from the Quagga and Sassayhe, amongst a large mixed herd of which animals great 
havoe had just bees committed, it is scarcely possible to comprehend the unqualified delight with which they discovered this 
new mountain of carrion standing stupidly under the shade of a spreading acacia—its dull heavy eye rivetted upon the earth 
as in a brown study. Pointing eagerly towards it, their suppressed exclamations of Chickore! Chickore | were accompanied by 
ali epicurean smacking of the lips, and by many telegraphic anticipations ‘of the farther work which awaited their already 
swollen abdomens. Before commencing the attack, I had approached unperceived ta within thirty yards of the enemy, and 
being seouraly ensconced behind an extremely thick bush overhanging the brink of a precipitous ravine that formed a gulf 
betwixt us, leisurely planted a two ounce bullet fekinl his armpit. But this assault had no other immediate effect than to 
bring my antagonist square to the front, in which position he stood eyeing my place of concealment, and practising various 
absurd contortions of the features, until, having reloaded, I bestowed two ounces more, Snorting, . groaning, and bleeding, away 
he then seoured— his nosé close to the ground, and the whole meat-laden mob at his heels ; but it was not until he had made 
four clumsy charges, and received as"many more shots behind the shoulder, besides four times that number of assagais in his 
crupper san haunches, that he thought proper to deliver up the ghost. Iu the chase, as in war, is it that the energies of the 
savage are displayed to the greatest advantage — the metamorphosis from his usual apathy and listless indifferenre ‘being bever 
more complete or more sndden. At one moment might their shadowy forms be perceived stealing amid the bushes with noise. 
less tread; and af the next, uttering a yell of savage exultation, and bounding forward with the elasticity of 4 tiger, they 
had sheathed their slender weapons in the tough hide of the tortured quarry, and were dexterously retreating before its reck- 
less ch: are. r 
At the close of a long and sultry march, we halted late one afternoon upon the steep bank of the Simalakate, near to 
where the grey arms of a clump of moss-grown mimosas, entwining, admitted throuth their loose tresses the last long-dancing 
gleams of departing snnshine. Beneath, the pensive willows laying their silyery garlands in the blue stream, over a bed of 
tall flowering reeds that sighed and rustled at their feet, forming the most inyiting of canopies ; and ovr. two surviving dogs 
* Many months after these sketehus were porned, Mr. Darwin's recently published yolume, forming one of ‘the Narrative of a V 
syage vf H. M. Ship 
Beogle, armived in India. From it I perceive ‘that Dr. Smith, whilst travelling im latitude 24 deprees (two detrees 
north of the mountains in question), saw during 
one day's march with the bulloel wapgons, and without wandering to any great distance on either aide of their track, between one hvndred and one hundred and 
fifty Rhinsceroses, and not fewer than one hundred Ginffes, Hix party 
had, on the previous day, killed eight hippapntami in a single pool, and seen many Others ; 
walking on the plain around the encampment of the Expedition. 
and of a subsequent ocension seven lions were counted at the same time, 
