[68] The above wood-cut is a portrait of a negro youth born and bred at the Cape. He has been jobbing, and is returning home with the various articles intrusted to his charge.
[69] Descendants of Dutch farmers and Hottentot women, and hence also called Bastards.
[70] On accidentally mentioning my fast to Captain Sturt, the distinguished Australian traveler, he assured me it was a mere trifle to what he himself had once suffered, having been six and a half consecutive days without nourishment of any kind!
[71] It is asserted by more than one experienced hunter, that when the hyæna proves troublesome, the lion has been known to bite off all its feet, and, thus mutilated, leave the poor animal to its fate!
[72] Rhinoceros Indicus, Rhinoceros Sondaicus, and Rhinoceros Bicornis Sumatrensis.
[73] I have met persons who told me that they have killed rhinoceroses with three horns; but in all such cases (and they have been but few), the third, or posterior horn is so small as to be scarcely perceptible.
[74] The above wood-cut is a rough but characteristic outline of the heads of the four distinct species of rhinoceroses recognized as indigenous to Africa. The two lowest heads in the sketch are those of the “black.”
[75] Only the horns of this species have been described by naturalists. Dr. Gray, of the British Museum, seems to be one of the first who drew attention to the Kobaaba as a distinct rhinoceros. In the “Proceedings of the Zoological Society,” No. ccl., p. 46, the following details appear. They were obtained from a pair of horns (of which the wood-cut in the opposite page is an excellent likeness) presented by Mr. Oswell to Colonel Thomas Steele, of Upper Brook Street:
“The front horn is elongated and thick; but, instead of being bent back, as is the general character of R. bicornis, or erect, as in R. simus, it is bent forward, so that the upper surface is worn flat by being rubbed against the ground. The front horn is thirty-one inches long, flat, square, rough and fibrous in front, rounded and smooth behind. The hinder horn, eleven inches in length, is short, conical, and sub-quadrangular.”
[76] The Asiatic specimen in the Zoological Gardens, Regent’s Park, is fed on clover, straw, rice, and bran. His daily allowance is one truss 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 water.