. Lake Ngami; or, Explorations and discoveries during four years' wanderings in the wilds of southwestern Africa . that a horse with a rider, to quote thewords of Gordon Gumming, can rarely manage to overtakeit. The testimony of Captain Harris is to the like effect;for, when speaking of the chase of this animal, and after tell-ing us that it is most difficult to kill, he says, From itsclumsy appearance, one would never suppose it could dartabout as it does, like lightning. The food of the rhinoceros consists entirely, as mentioned,of vegetables, shoots of trees, grasses, &c. It is fond of thes
. Lake Ngami; or, Explorations and discoveries during four years' wanderings in the wilds of southwestern Africa . that a horse with a rider, to quote thewords of Gordon Gumming, can rarely manage to overtakeit. The testimony of Captain Harris is to the like effect;for, when speaking of the chase of this animal, and after tell-ing us that it is most difficult to kill, he says, From itsclumsy appearance, one would never suppose it could dartabout as it does, like lightning. The food of the rhinoceros consists entirely, as mentioned,of vegetables, shoots of trees, grasses, &c. It is fond of thesugar-cane, and eats all kinds of grain ;* but it does not seemto be a voracious feeder. Indeed, it would appear to besomewhat fastidious in the selection of its food, in search ofwhich it wanders far and wide. * The Asiatic specimen in the Zoological Gardens, Eegents Park,is fed on clover, straw, rice, and bran. His daily allowance is onetruss of straw, three quarters of a truss of clover, one quart of rice,half a bushel of bran, and twenty to twenty-four gallons of v/ater. 376 WATER ^YOUNG BREEDING Water is indispensable to the rhinoceros, and, even if hisusual haunts be distant from the fountain, he seeks it at leastonce in the course of the twenty-four hours, as well to quench]iis thirst as to wallow in the mud, with which his body isfrequently incrusted, leaving to the thirsty traveler nothingbut a mass of well-kneaded dough. FCETUS OF EHINOCEEOS KEITLOA. Little seems to be known of the breeding habits of thisanimal: whether it lives in monogamy, or has a plurality ofwives, and so forth. It appears certain, however, that thefemale only produces one young at a birth, and that, too, atconsiderable intervals. During the jfirst month, the youngrhinoceros exceeds not the size of a large dog, with the mer-est indication of horns. A complete and full-grown foetusof R. Keitloa that I once obtained measured thus: Length of body (from tip of nose, over the head, and pt. in. al
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Keywords: ., bookauthorandersso, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookyear1856
