Rhinoceros Hunting. Mr. Gordon Cumming gives several graphic descriptions of his experiences with the rhinoceros, in his "Hunting Adventures in South Africa", from which work the foregoing description of the several species is taken. On one occasion after following a huge white rhinoceros, which, however, escaped him, he says, "I found myself on the banks of the stream beside which my waggons were out-spanned. Following along its margin, I presently beheld a bull of the borèlé, or black rhinoceros, standing within a hundred yards of me. Dismounting from my horse, I secured him to a tree, and then stalked within twenty yards of the huge beast, under cover of a large strong bush. Borèlé, hearing me advance, came on to see what it was, and suddenly protruded his horny nose within twenty yards of me. Knowing well that a front shot would not prove deadly, I sprang to my feet and ran behind the bush. Upon this the villain charged, blowing loudly, and chased me round the bush. Had his activity been equal to his ugliness my wanderings would have terminated here, but by my superiority I had the advantage in the turn. After standing a short time eyeing me through the bush ... he wheeled about, leaving me master of the field." This was not the only nor even the narrowest escape experienced by Mr. Gordon Cumming when hunting this enormous beast. On another occasion he says:—"Having proceeded about two miles with large herds of game on every side, I observed a crusty looking old bull borèlé or black rhinoceros, cocking his ears one hundred yards in advance. He had not observed us; and soon after he walked slowly towards us, and stood broadside, eating some wait-a-bit thorns within fifty yards of me. I fired from my saddle, and sent a bullet in behind his shoulder, upon which he rushed forward about one hundred yards in tremendous consternation, blowing like a grampus, and then stood looking about him. Presently he made off. I followed, but found it hard to come up with him. The chase led through a large herd of wildebeests, zebras, and springboks, which gazed at us in utter amazement. At length I fired my second barrel, but my horse was fidgety, and I missed. I continued riding alongside of him, expecting in my ignorance, that at length he would come to bay, which rhinoceroses never do; when suddenly he fell flat on his broadside on the ground, but, recovering his feet resumed his course as if nothing had happened. Becoming at last annoyed at the length of the chase, as I wished to keep my horse fresh for the elephants, and being indifferent whether I got the rhinoceros or not, I determined to bring matters to a crisis, so spurring my horse, I dashed ahead, and rode right in his path. Upon this the hideous monster instantly charged me in the most resolute manner, blowing loudly through his nostrils; and although I quickly wheeled about to my left, he followed me at such a furious pace for several hundred yards, with his horrid horny snout within a few yards of my horse's tail, that my little bushman, who was looking on in great alarm, thought his master's destruction inevitable. It was certainly a very near thing; my horse was extremely afraid and exerted his utmost energies on the occasion. The rhinoceros, however, wheeled about and continued his former course, and I, being perfectly satisfied with the interview which I had already enjoyed with him, had no desire to cultivate his acquaintance any further, and accordingly made for the camp."
The Tame Rhinoceros. Some species of the rhinoceros, if not all, seem to be tamable. The Indian variety distinguished by the thick folds of heavy garment-like skin, which hang from his shoulders, haunches and thighs, has been trained to exercise the same quiet patience which distinguishes the elephant. The paroxysms of rage which Mr. Gordon Cumming describes the African variety as venting upon a harmless bush, or employing in tearing up the earth, have been known to seize those specimens which have been imported into England, as the following account of the rhinoceros, exhibited at Exeter Change, published in the "Philosophical Transactions for 1822," will show. "This animal about a month after it came, endeavoured to kill the keeper, and nearly succeeded. It ran at him with the greatest impetuosity, but, fortunately, the horn passed between his thighs, and threw the keeper on its head; the horn came against a wooden partition, into which the animal forced it to such a depth as to be unable for a minute to withdraw it, and, during this interval, the man escaped. Frequently, (more especially in the middle of the night), fits of frenzy came on; and, while these lasted, nothing could control its rage, the rhinoceros running with great swiftness round the den, playing all kinds of antics, making hideous noises, knocking everything to pieces, disturbing the whole neighbourhood, and then, all at once, becoming quiet. While the fit was on, even the keeper durst not make his approach. The animal fell upon its knee to enable the horn to be borne upon any object. It was quick in all its motions, ate voraciously all kinds of vegetables, appearing to have no selection. They fed it on branches of willow. Three years' confinement made no alteration in its habits." The rhinoceros is said to live for a hundred years.
The Hippopotamus. The Hippopotamus introduces the second sub-order of the hoofed animals, the Artiodactyla, animals having an even number of toes. There is but one genus of the Hippopotamus and two species, the Hippopotamus of the great rivers of Southern Africa, and the Liberian Hippopotamus of the West. The Hippopotamus is gregarious, congregating in the deep shady pools and on the sandy banks of the shallow rivers of its native land. It attains to ten or eleven feet in length, and to five feet, or more, in height, being the next largest animal to the rhinoceros and the elephant. He is a powerful beast and has been known to attack and capsize boats, though when hunted he usually sinks to the bottom of the river where he is able to remain five or six minutes without rising to the surface for breath. The form of his head enables him to lift his eyes and his nostrils above the water at the same time without exposing more than a slight portion of his head. Thus, while taking in breath to sustain him while out of the reach of his enemies, he can watch their movements and determine his course below. His hide is very thick and strong and is, therefore, very useful for a variety of purposes, while his tusks furnish the dentist with the material to supply human deficiencies.
The Haunt of the Hippopotami. Mr. Gordon Cumming gives the following vivid description of the haunt of the Hippopotami. "The next day I rode down the river to seek sea-cows, taking as usual my double-barrelled rifles. We had proceeded about two miles when we came upon some most thoroughly beaten, old established hippopotamus paths, and presently, in a broad, long, deep, and shaded pool of the river, we heard the sea-cows bellowing. There I beheld one of the most wondrous and interesting sights that a sportsman can be blessed with. I at once knew that there must be an immense herd of them, for the voices came from the different parts of the pool; so creeping in through the bushes to obtain an inspection, a large sandy Island appeared at the neck of the pool, on which stood several large shady trees. The neck of the pool was very wide and shallow, with rocks and large stones; below, it was deep and still. On a sandy promontory of this Island stood about thirty cows and calves, whilst in the pool opposite, and a little below them, stood about twenty more sea-cows, with their heads and backs above water. About fifty yards further down the river again, showing out their heads, were eight or ten immense fellows, which I think were all bulls; and about one hundred yards below these in the middle of the stream stood another herd of about eight or ten cows with calves and two huge bulls. The sea-cows lay close together like pigs; a favourite position was to rest their heads on their comrade's sterns and sides. The herds were attended by an immense number of the invariable rhinoceros birds, which on observing me did their best to spread alarm throughout the hippopotami. I was resolved to select, if possible, a first-rate old bull out of this vast herd, and I accordingly delayed firing for nearly two hours, continually running up and down behind the thick thorny cover, attentively studying the heads. At length I determined to go close in and select the best head out of the eight or ten bulls which lay below the cows. I accordingly left the cover, and walked slowly forward in full view of the whole herd to the water's edge, where I lay down on my belly and studied the heads of these bulls. The cows on seeing me splashed into the water and kept up a continual snorting and blowing till night set in. After selecting for a few minutes I fired my first shot at a splendid bull and sent the ball in a little behind the eye. He was at once incapacitated, and kept plunging and swimming round and round, wearing away down the pool, until I finished him with two more shots."
The Pig Family. Pigs, hogs and peccaries form the next family with which we have to deal. The Wild Boar which we may take first, is famous in classic history and European legends, and is celebrated both by ancient and modern poets. He is, or was common to Europe, Asia and Africa, and whether in the hunt or the banquet has always been highly esteemed. The boar hunt is an exciting chase, having all the elements of danger necessary to give it zest. Boars have been known to kill not only dogs, but horses and men with their powerful tusks, turning and rending them with great strength and ferocity. When in a wild state the boar is a dangerous and inconvenient neighbour, for he commits serious depredations upon the property of the peasant and the farmer. Bruce in his travels gives an illustration of this. He says: "We pitched our tent in a small plain by the banks of a quick clear running stream; the spot is called Mai-Shum. A peasant had made a very neat little garden, on both sides of the rivulet, in which he had sown abundance of onions and garlic, and he had a species of pumpkin which I thought was little inferior to a melon. This man guessed by our arms and our horses that we were hunters, and he brought us a present of the fruits of his garden, and begged our assistance against a number of wild boars, which carried havoc and desolation through all his labours, marks of which were, indeed, too visible everywhere.—Amongst us all we killed five boars, all large ones, in the space of about two hours; one of which measured six feet nine inches; and though he ran at an amazing speed near two miles, so as to be with difficulty overtaken by the horse, and was struck through and through with two heavy lances loaded at the end with iron, no person dared to come near him on foot, and he defended himself above half an hour, till having no other arms left, I shot him with a horse-pistol." The tusks of the wild boar are often a foot in length and his hide is so tough that small bullets have been found between the skin and the flesh of captured specimens.
The Common Hog. Authorities differ as to whether the domestic pig is derived from the wild species or not, but certain it is that the domestic hog under suitable circumstances, betrays wild instincts. Hogs have been known to hunt rabbits and poultry and attack lambs when temporarily free from restraint, and instances have been recorded in which the hog has attacked and killed its keeper. The hog grows to a great size, the measurements of one belonging to Mr. Lunton of Bodmain some years ago being nine feet in length and seven feet five inches in girth. Its weight was eight hundred and fifteen pounds. These limits have, however, often been exceeded, a hog bred in Cheshire measuring nine feet eight inches including tail, and standing four feet six inches in height. This animal weighed 1,215 pounds when killed. Hampshire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, and Yorkshire have all fine breeds which supply the larders of the United Kingdom with prime bacon. The sucking pig has been deemed a dainty dish even from Roman times. The babiroussa belongs to Bouru and Celebes, and is gregarious. Its habits are similar to those of the wild hog, which the male rivals and even surpasses in size. It has tusks attached to both the upper and the lower jaw, which bend backwards with a graceful curve.
The Peccary. The Peccary belongs to South America where it is indigenous. There are two species, the Collared Peccary and the White-lipped Peccary. The collared peccary is a timid, inoffensive animal about three feet long, and distinguished by white bands which traverse the shoulders and meet at the neck. They associate in pairs or small families and live in holes and hollows. The white-lipped peccary herds in large numbers, migrating apparently in regular order in companies sometimes a thousand strong. These animals are very fierce when attacked, and the hunter has little chance of escaping them unless he can find shelter in a friendly tree. Many stories are told of hunters who have sought such asylum, and who have been kept treed many hours by peccaries who, regardless of the mortality of their comrades, have lingered round the trunk.
The Camel and the Dromedary. The history of the Camel carries us back to the age of the great patriarchs, and gives him some claim to be regarded as a patriarch himself. He belongs to Egypt and Arabia, where he is indispensable to the desert ranger, and where no longer found in a wild state, he takes rank as a domestic animal. His uses are several. As a beast of burden he is invaluable, while the milk of the female serves as an article of food, the surplus wool of his body as a material for rough woven cloth and his dung as excellent fuel. He is said by some to be docile and affectionate and by others to be dull and stupid, though harbouring the spirit of revenge. Probably like many other animals he will be found to reciprocate the treatment he receives in kindness as well as in cruelty. Some confusion exists in the popular mind as to distinctions between the Camel and the Dromedary, the number of the humps being said to differentiate the two. With regard to this Mr. Palgrave in his "Travels in Central and Eastern Arabia", says:—"The camel and the dromedary in Arabia are the same identical genus and creature, excepting that the dromedary is a high-bred camel, and the camel a low-bred dromedary; exactly the distinction which exists between a race-horse and a hack; both are horses, but the one of blood and the other not. The dromedary is the race horse of this species, thin, elegant, (or comparatively so) fine haired, light of step, easy of pace, and much more enduring of thirst than the woolly, thick-built, heavy-footed, ungainly and jolting camel. But both and each of them have only one hump, placed immediately behind their shoulders, where it serves as a fixing point for the saddle or burden. For the two humped beast—it exists, indeed, but it is neither an Arab dromedary nor camel; it belongs to the Persian breed called by the Arabs 'Bakhtee' or Bactrian."
The Strength and Endurance of the Camel. Like all animals in their native lands the camel shows remarkable adaptation to his environment. Water is scarce in the desert, so the ship of the desert, as he has been poetically called, is provided with a capacity for the storage of the precious fluid and is able to take in a several days' supply at one time. The camel is said to drink "fifty, sixty, or even a hundred pounds' weight" of water at one time, and then to go for three or four days without a fresh supply. Again food is scarce in the desert, and the herbage of a very coarse kind, but the camel is able to do with remarkably little food, if his size and the weight of his burden are taken into consideration, and he will browse contentedly upon such food as he finds by the wayside, supplemented by "a cake of barley, a few dates, or beans" from the hands of his master. "They are particularly fond," says a writer in "Tales of Animals", "of those vegetable productions, which other animals would never touch, such as plants which are like spears and daggers, in comparison with the needles of the thistle, and which often pierce the incautious traveller's boot." A camel can be purchased in Egypt for from thirty to fifty dollars, though the high bred dromedary will fetch a very much larger sum. The camel will carry from five hundred to eight hundred pounds' weight, but will not stir if loaded beyond his strength. He travels at a uniform rate of three miles an hour, but will keep on at that rate for ten or twelve hours. The dromedary attains to a speed which the Arab compares to the speed of the wind.
The Camel and his Master. Mr. Macfarlane says, "I have been told that the Arabs will kiss their Camels in gratitude and affection, after a journey across the desert. I never saw the Turks either of Asia-Minor or Roumelia, carry their kindness so far as this; but I have frequently seen them pat their Camels when the day's work was done, and talk to them on their journey, as if to cheer them. The Camels appeared to me quite as sensible to favour and gentle treatment as a good bred horse is. I have seen them curve and twist their long lithe necks as their driver approached, and often put down their tranquil heads towards his shoulder. Near Smyrna, and at Magnesia and Sardes, I have occasionally seen a Camel follow his master like a pet dog, and go down on his knees before him, as if inviting him to mount. I never saw a Turk ill use the useful, gentle, amiable quadruped. But I have frequently seen him give it a portion of his own dinner, when, in unfavourable places, it had nothing but chopped straw to eat. I have sometimes seen the drivers on a hot day, or in passing a dry district, spirt a little water in the Camel's nostrils; they pretend it refreshes them."