The Woolly Rhinoceros
About the same time that the musk sheep came from the north, another strange animal appeared.
It was a huge creature.
Not one like it has lived for ages.
It was a woolly rhinoceros.
The big-nosed rhinoceros liked to live where it was warm.
It lived on the wooded hills before the Tree-dwellers did.
The small-nosed rhinoceros liked the warm country, too.
It came from the south when the Tree-dwellers appeared.
But the woolly rhinoceros came down from the north.
It was able to live in the cold.
It had an inner coat of fine curly wool.
This coat kept it warm.
It had a coarse, hairy outer coat.
This coat kept it from feeling heavy blows.
It had two horns on its ugly snout.
They kept it safe from harm.
When it was not disturbed it was a peaceable animal.
But when it was attacked there was no animal that was more fierce.
The other animals learned to let it alone.
Sometimes the wolves and hyenas frightened it over a precipice.
But it was a long time before men tried to hunt it.