Erve them well. On the contrary, if the hunter go to windward, they will
scent him at a great distance, as their sense of smell is most acute. If
their eyes were only as keen as their nostrils, it would be a dangerous
game to attack them, for they can run with sufficient rapidity to
overtake a horse in the first charge. In charging and running, the black
variety far excels the white. They are easily avoided, however, by the
hunter springing quickly to one side, and letting them rush blindly on.
The black rhinoceros is about six feet high at the shoulder, and full
thirteen in length; while the white kinds are far larger. The "kobaoba"
is full seven feet high, and fourteen in length! No wonder that an
animal of these extraordinary dimensions was at first sight taken for
the elephant. In fact, the kobaoba rhinoceros is the quadruped next to
the elephant in size; and with his great muzzle--full eighteen inches
broad--his long clumsy head, his vast ponderous body, this animal
impresses one with an idea of strength and massive grandeur as great,
and some say greater than the elephant himself. He looks, indeed, like a
caricature of the elephant. It was not such a bad mistake, then, when
our people by the wagon took the "kobaoba" for the "mighty elephant."
Swartboy, however, set them all right by declaring that the animal they
saw was the white rhinoceros. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. A HEAVY COMBAT. When
they first saw the kobaoba, he was, as stated, just coming out of the
thicket. Without halting, he headed in the direction of the vley already
mentioned; and kept on towards it, his object evidently being to reach
the water. T
|
