THE RHINOCEROS.
Brutality of the Rhinoceros--The Borelo--The Keitloa--The Monoho--
The Kobaaba--Difference of Food and Disposition between the Black
and the White Rhinoceros--Incarnation of Ugliness--Acute Smell and
Hearing--Defective Vision--The Buphaga Africana--Paroxysms of
Rage--Parental Affection--Nocturnal Habits--Rhinoceros-Hunting--
Adventures of the Chase--Narrow Escapes of Messrs. Oswell and
Andersson--The Indian Rhinoceros--The Sumatran Rhinoceros--The
Javanese Rhinoceros--Its involuntary Suicide.
The Rhinoceros has about the same range as the elephant, but is found
also in the island of Java, where the latter is unknown. Although not
possessed of the ferocity of carnivorous animals, the rhinoceros is
completely wild and untameable; the image of a gigantic hog, without
intelligence, feeling, or docility, and though emulating the elephant
in size is infinitely inferior in point of sagacity. The latter, with
his beautiful, intelligent eye, awakens the sympathy of man; while the
rhinoceros is the very image of brutal violence and stupidity.
It was formerly supposed that Africa had but one rhinoceros, but the
researches of modern travellers have discovered no less than four
different species, two white and two black, each of them with two
horns. The black species are the Borelo and the Keitloa, which is
longer, with a larger neck and almost equal horns. In both species
the upper lip projects over the lower, and is capable of being
extended like that of the giraffe, thus enabling the animal to grasp
the branches on whose foliage he intends to feast. Both the Borelo
and the Keitloa are extremely ill-natured, and, with the exception
of the buffalo, the most dangerous of all the wild animals of South
Africa. The white species are the Monoho and the Kobaaba, which is
distinguished by one of its horns attaining the prodigious length of
four feet.
Although the black and white rhinoceroses are members of the same
family, their mode of living and disposition are totally different.
The food of the former consists almost entirely of roots, which they
dig up with their larger horn, or of the branches and sprouts of the
thorny acacia, while the latter exclusively live on grasses. Perhaps
in consequence of their milder food, they are of a timid unsuspecting
nature, which renders them an easy prey, so that they are fast melting
away before the onward march of the European trader; while the black
species, from their greater ferocity and wariness, maintain their place
much longer than their more timid relations. The different nature of
the black and white rhinoceroses shows itself even in their flesh,
for while that of the former, living chiefly on arid branches, has
a bitter taste, and but little recommends itself by its meagreness
and toughness--these animals, like the generality of ill-natured
creatures, being never found with an ounce of fat on their bones--that
of the latter is juicy and well-flavoured.
The shape of the rhinoceros is unwieldy and massive; its vast paunch
hangs down nearly to the ground; its short legs are of columnar
strength, and have three toes on each foot; the misshapen head has
long and erect ears, and ludicrously small eyes; the skin, which is
completely naked, with the exception of some coarse bristles at the
extremity of the tail, and the upper end of the ears, is comparatively
smooth in the African species, but extremely rough in the Asiatic,
hanging in large folds about the animal like a mantle; so that, summing
up all these characters, the rhinoceros has no reason to complain of
injustice, if we style it the very incarnation of ugliness. From the
snout to the tip of the tail, the African rhinoceros attains a length
of from 15 to 16 feet, a girth of from 10 to 12, a weight of from 4,000
to 5,000 pounds; but, in spite of its ponderous and clumsy proportions,
it is able to speed like lightning, particularly when pursued. It
then seeks the nearest wood, and dashes with all its might through
the thicket. The trees that are dead or dry are broken down as with a
cannon shot, and fall behind it and on its sides in all directions;
others that are more pliable, greener, or full of sap are bent back by
its weight and the velocity of its motions, and restore themselves like
a green branch to their natural position, after the huge animal has
passed. They often sweep the incautious pursuer and his horse from the
ground, and dash them in pieces against the surrounding trees.
The rhinoceros is endowed with an extraordinary acuteness of smell and
hearing; he listens with attention to every sound, and is able to scent
from a great distance the approach of man; but as the range of his
small and deep-set eyes is impeded by his unwieldy horns, he can only
see what is immediately before him, so that if one be to leeward of
him, it is not difficult to approach within a few paces. The Kobaaba,
however, from its horn being projected downwards, so as not to obstruct
the line of vision, is able to be much more wary than the other species.
To make up for the imperfection of its sight, the rhinoceros is
frequently accompanied by a bird (_Buphaga Africana_) which warns the
beast of approaching danger by its cry. ‘Many a time,’ says Gordon
Cumming, ‘have these watchful attendants disappointed me in my stalk.
They are the best friends the rhinoceros has, and rarely fail to awaken
him, even in his soundest nap. He perfectly understands their warning,
and springing to his feet, he generally first looks about him in every
direction, after which he invariably makes off. I have often hunted
a rhinoceros on horseback which led me a chase of many miles, and
required a number of shots before he fell, during which chase several
of these birds remained by the rhinoceros to the last. They reminded
me of mariners on the deck of some bark sailing on the ocean, for
they perched along his back and sides; and as each of my bullets told
on the shoulder of the rhinoceros, they ascended about six feet into
the air, uttering their harsh cry of alarm, and then resumed their
position. It sometimes happened that the lower branches of trees,
under which the rhinoceros passed, swept them from their living deck,
but they always recovered their former station; they also adhere to
the rhinoceros during the night. I have often shot these animals at
midnight when drinking at the fountains, and the birds imagining they
were asleep, remained with them till morning, and on my approaching,
before taking flight, they exerted themselves to their utmost to awaken
the rhinoceros from his deep sleep.’
The black rhinoceroses are of a gloomy melancholy temper, and not
seldom fall into paroxysms of rage without any evident cause, often
ploughing up the ground for several yards with their horn, and
assaulting large bushes in the most violent manner. On these they work
for hours with their horns, at the same time snorting and blowing
loudly, nor do they leave them in general until they have broken them
into pieces. Seeing the creatures in their wild haunts, cropping the
bushes, or quietly moving through the plains, you might take them
for the most inoffensive animals of all Africa, but when roused to
passion there is nothing more terrific on earth. All the beasts of the
wilderness are afraid of the uncouth Borelo. The lion silently retires
from its path, and even the elephant is glad to get out of the way.
Yet this brutal and stupidly hoggish animal is distinguished by its
parental love, and the tenderness which it bestows on its young is
returned with equal affection.
Although not gregarious, and most generally solitary or grazing
in pairs, yet frequently as many as a dozen rhinoceroses are seen
pasturing and browsing together. As is the case with many other
tropical animals, the huge beast awakens to a more active life after
sunset. It then hastens to the lake or river to slake its thirst or to
wallow in the mud, thus covering its hide with a thick coat of clay,
against the attacks of flies; or to relieve itself from the itching
of their stings, it rubs itself against some tree, and testifies its
inward satisfaction by a deep-drawn grunt. During the night, it rambles
over a great extent of country, but soon after sunrise seeks shelter
against the heat under the shade of a tree or rock, where it spends the
greater part of the day in sleep, either stretched at full length or
in a standing position. Thus seen from a distance, it might easily be
mistaken for a huge block of stone.
The rhinoceros is hunted in various manners. One of the most approved
plans is to stalk the animal, either when feeding or reposing. If the
sportsman keep well under the wind, and there be the least cover, he
has no difficulty in approaching the beast within easy range, when,
if the ball be well directed, it is killed on the spot. But by far
the most convenient way of destroying the animal is to shoot it from
a cover or a screen, when it comes to the pool to slake its thirst.
Occasionally it is also taken in pitfalls. Contrary to common belief,
a leaden ball (though spelter is preferable) will easily find its way
through the hide of the African rhinoceros, but it is necessary to be
within thirty or forty paces of the brute, and desirable to have a
double charge of powder. The most deadly part to aim at is just behind
the shoulder; a ball through the centre of the lobes of the lungs is
certain to cause almost instantaneous death. A shot in the head never
or rarely proves fatal, as the brain, which, in proportion to the
bulk of the animal, does not attain the three-hundredth part of the
size of the human cerebrum, is protected, besides its smallness, by a
prodigious case of bone, hide, and horn. However severely wounded the
rhinoceros may be, he seldom bleeds externally. This is attributable in
part, no doubt, to the great thickness of the hide and its elasticity,
which occasions the hole caused by the bullet nearly to close up,
as also from the hide not being firmly attached to the body, but
constantly moving.
From what has been related of the fury of the rhinoceros, its pursuit
must evidently be attended with considerable danger, and thus the
annals of the wild sports of Southern Africa are full of hair-breadth
escapes from its terrific charge. Once Mr. Oswell, having lodged a
ball in the body of a huge white rhinoceros, was surprised to see the
beast, instead of seeking safety in flight, as is generally the case
with this inoffensive species, suddenly stop short, and having eyed him
curiously for a second or two, walk slowly towards him. Though never
dreaming of danger, he instinctively turned his horse’s head away;
but strange to say, this creature, usually so docile, now absolutely
refused to give him his head. When at last he did so, it was too late,
for although the rhinoceros had only been walking, the distance was
now so small that contact was unavoidable. In another moment the brute
bent low his head, and with a thrust upwards, struck his horn into the
ribs of the horse with such force as to penetrate to the very saddle
on the opposite side, where the rider felt its sharp point against
his leg. The violence of the blow was so tremendous as to cause the
horse to make a complete somersault in the air, coming heavily down
on his back. The rider was, of course, violently precipitated to the
ground. While thus prostrated, he saw the horn of the monster alongside
of him; but without attempting to do any further mischief, the brute
started off at a canter from the scene of action. If the rhinoceros
imagined it had come off as victor, it was, however, soon undeceived;
for Mr. Oswell, rushing upon one of his companions, who by this time
had come up, and unceremoniously pulling him off his horse, leapt into
the saddle, and without a hat, and his face streaming with blood, was
quickly in pursuit of the beast, which he soon had the satisfaction to
see stretched lifeless at his feet.
Mr. Andersson, another well-known African Nimrod, having one day
wounded a black rhinoceros, and being in an unfavourable situation for
renewing his shot with deadly effect, the monster, snorting horribly,
erecting its tail, keeping its head close to the ground, and raising
clouds of dust by its feet, rushed at him furiously. ‘I had only just
time to level my rifle and fire,’ says this adventurous traveller,
‘before it was upon me, and the next instant knocked me to the ground.
The shock was so violent as to send my rifle, powder-flask, and
ball-pouch spinning ten feet high in the air. On the beast charging
me, it crossed my mind that, unless gored at once by its horn, its
impetus would be such as to carry it beyond me, and I might thus be
afforded a chance of escape, and so, indeed, it happened, for, having
been tumbled over and trampled on with great violence, the fore-quarter
of the enraged brute passed over my body. Struggling for life, I
seized my opportunity, and as the animal was recovering itself for a
renewal of the charge, scrambled out from between its hind legs. But
the infuriated rhinoceros had not yet done with me, for scarcely had I
regained my feet, before he struck me down a second time, and with his
horn ripped up my right thigh (though not very deeply) from near the
knee to the hip: with his fore-feet, moreover, he hit me a terrific
blow on the left shoulder, near the back of the neck. My ribs bent
under the enormous weight and pressure, and for a moment I must, as
I believe, have lost consciousness; I have at least very indistinct
notions of what afterwards took place. All I remember is, that when I
raised my head, I heard a furious snorting and plunging amongst the
neighbouring bushes. I now arose, though with great difficulty, and
made my way in the best manner I was able towards a large tree near
at hand for shelter; but this precaution was needless; the beast, for
the time at least, showed no inclination further to molest me. Either
in the _mêlée_, or owing to the confusion caused by its wounds, it had
lost sight of me, or felt satisfied with the revenge it had taken. Be
that as it may, I escaped with life, though sadly wounded and severely
bruised, in which disabled state I had great difficulty in getting back
to my screen.’
The rhinoceros is hunted for its flesh, its hide (which is manufactured
into the best and hardest leather that can be imagined), and its horns,
which, being capable of a high polish, fetch at the Cape a higher price
than ordinary elephant ivory. It is extensively used in the manufacture
of sword-handles, drinking-cups, ramrods for rifles, and a variety of
other purposes. Among Oriental princes, goblets made of rhinoceros
horn are in high esteem, as they are supposed to have the virtue of
detecting poison by causing the deadly liquid to ferment till it flows
over the rim, or, as some say, to split the cup.
The number of rhinoceroses destroyed annually in South Africa is very
considerable. Messrs. Oswell and Varden killed in one year no less than
eighty-nine, and in one journey, Andersson shot, single-handed, nearly
two-thirds of this number. It is thus not to be wondered at that the
rhinoceros, which formerly ranged as far as the Cape, is now but seldom
found to the south of the tropic.
The single-horned Indian rhinoceros was already known to the ancients,
and not unfrequently doomed to bleed in the Roman amphitheatres.
One which was sent to King Emanuel of Portugal in the year 1513,
and presented by him to the Pope, had the honour to be pictured
in a woodcut by no less an artist than Albrecht Dürer himself.
Latterly, rhinoceroses have much more frequently been sent to Europe,
particularly the Asiatic species, and all the chief zoological gardens
possess specimens of the unwieldy creature.
In its native haunts, the Indian rhinoceros lends a tranquil indolent
life, wallowing on the marshy border of lakes and rivers, and
occasionally bathing itself in their waters. Its movements are usually
slow, and it carries its head low like the hog, ploughing up the ground
with its horn, and making its way by sheer force through the jungle.
Though naturally of a quiet and inoffensive disposition, it is very
dangerous when provoked, charging with resistless impetuosity, and
trampling down or ripping up with its horn any animal which opposes it.
Besides the single-horned species which inhabits the Indian peninsula,
Java, and Borneo, Sumatra possesses a rhinoceros with a double horn,
which is, however, distinguished from the analogous African species
by the large folds of its skin, and its smaller size. It is even
asserted that there exists in the same island a hornless species, and
another with three horns. There surely can be no better proof of the
difficulties which Natural History has to contend with in the wilder
regions of the tropical zone, and of the vast field still open to
future zoologists, than that, in spite of all investigations, we do not
yet even know with certainty all the species of so large a brute as the
rhinoceros.
In Java, this huge pachyderm is met with in the jungles of the low
country, but its chief haunts are the higher forest-lands, which
contain many small lakes and pools, whose banks are covered with high
grasses. In these solitudes, which are seldom visited by man, the
rhinoceros finds all that it requires for food and enjoyment. As it is
uncommonly shy, the traveller rarely meets it; but sometimes, while
threading his way through the thicket, he may chance to surprise wild
steers and rhinoceroses grazing on the brink of a pool, or quietly
lying in the morass. The grooved paths of the rhinoceros, deeply worn
into the solid rock, are found even on the summits of mountains above
the level of the sea. They are frequently used for the destruction of
the animal, for in the steeper places, where, on climbing up or down,
it is obliged to stretch out its body, so that the abdomen nearly
reaches the ground, the Javanese fix large scythe-like knives into the
rock, which they cover with moss and herbage, thus forcing the poor
rhinoceros to commit an involuntary suicide, and teaching him, though
too late to profit by his experience, how difficult it is to escape the
cunning of man.
[Illustration: ELEPHANTS.]