. Mammals of other lands;. Mammals. '^*-S^3 BLACK AFRICAN RHINOCEROSES A splendid snapshot of tivo black African rhinoceroses taken on the open 'veldt. They ivere afteriuards shot by the party white rhinoceros has never been encountered by any other traveler in Central Africa seems to show that the animal is either very rare in those districts, or that it has an exceedingly limited range. In the early years of the nineteenth century the square-mouthed or white rhinoceros was found m large numbers over the whole of South Africa from the Orange River to the Zambesi, except in the waterless porti
. Mammals of other lands;. Mammals. '^*-S^3 BLACK AFRICAN RHINOCEROSES A splendid snapshot of tivo black African rhinoceroses taken on the open 'veldt. They ivere afteriuards shot by the party white rhinoceros has never been encountered by any other traveler in Central Africa seems to show that the animal is either very rare in those districts, or that it has an exceedingly limited range. In the early years of the nineteenth century the square-mouthed or white rhinoceros was found m large numbers over the whole of South Africa from the Orange River to the Zambesi, except in the waterless portions of the Kalahari Desert, or those parts of the country which are covered with rugged stony hills or dense jungle. Speaking of his journey in 1837 through the western part of what is now the Transvaal Colony, Captain (afterwards Sir) Cornwallis Harris wrote: " On our way from the waggons to a hill not half a mile distant, we counted no less than twenty-two of the white species of rhinoceros, and were compelled in self-defense to slaughter four. On one occasion I was besieged in a bush by three at once, and had no little difficulty in beating off the ; Even so lately as thirty years ago the white rhinoceros was still to be met with in fair numbers in Ovampoland and other districts of Western South Africa, whilst it was quite plentiful in all the uninhabited parts of Eastern South Africa from Zululand to the Zambesi. In 1872 and 1873, whilst elephant-hunting in the uninhabited parts of Matabililand, I encountered white rhinoceroses almost daily, and often saw several in one day. At the present time, however, unless it should prove to be numerous in some as yet unex- plored districts of North Central Africa, this strange and interesting animal must be counted one of the rarest of existing mammals, and in Southern Africa I fear it must soon become extinct. A few still exist amongst the wild loquat groves of Northern Mashonaland, and there are also a few survi
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Keywords: ., bookauthorco, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmammals
