The Rhinoceros.
I know not how it may be with others, but I could never see a rhinoceros without laughing. There was one in Boston a few years ago, and he looked to me like an enormous pig with a very muddy coat on. His shape, his aspect, his ways, were all swinish, and his skin seemed entirely too large for him; it was therefore gathered up in folds across his back and sides. He eat hay, though he seemed to prefer sweet apples, corn and potatoes. He was a curiosity indeed.
I believe the rhinoceros to be the only creature that has a horn upon his nose; and I do not see why that is not a good place for one, if the creature wants a horn. This animal finds his convenient for tearing away the trees in his passage through the woods, and perhaps in digging up roots for food; and in his battles with the elephant, he often gives his enemy a terrible scratch with it under the ribs. So his horn answers at one time as a pickaxe, and at another it is like a warrior’s spear: thus it serves the purposes of peace and war; it brings sustenance, and it affords defence. Who then shall find fault with nature for giving the rhinoceros a horn upon the nose?
If one horn upon the nose is a good thing, two must be better; so there are some of these creatures that have two. The African species, which is very powerful and numerous in some parts, has two horns; the Asiatic species, found in India, has but one. This latter kind is seldom more than six or seven feet long, but those of Africa are sometimes twelve feet. They are, therefore, excepting the elephant, the largest of quadrupeds.
In India the hunting of the rhinoceros is famous sport. The people go out mounted upon elephants, and usually find five or six of these animals in a drove. Their hides are so thick that it is difficult to kill them. One will often receive twenty bullets before he falls. The rhinoceros attacks an elephant fearlessly, and endeavors to get his horn under him so as to rip him open. But the elephant, finding what he would be at, turns his tail to the assailant, who gives him a hunch behind, and tumbles his huge enemy upon his knees. Then the men upon the elephant fire their guns and pepper the thick hide of the rhinoceros with their bullets.
Thus goes the fight, and after many adventures, and much danger, and plenty of accidents and hair breadth ’scapes, and a vast waste of gunpowder and lead, the game usually runs away, or perhaps it is left as a trophy of the sportsman’s skill and prowess upon the field.
The rhinoceros feeds entirely upon vegetables, always living near water, and taking a frequent wallow in the mud, or a bath in the wave. He is fearful of man, and though dull of sight, has an acute scent and a sharp ear, which enable him usually to keep out of reach of the being he dreads so much. It is only when hunted and closely pursued, that he turns to fight, and then he is fierce and formidable. In confinement he becomes quiet and stupid, though he sometimes gets into a fury, and then he rends his cage in pieces with ease. It is almost impossible to confine him when his rage is excited.