e us a very beautiful and to me most
extraordinary sight. Before us stood, with their heads lifted high up,
a troop of eighteen or twenty giraffes, or camelopards. Few of them
were under eighteen feet in height, of a delicate colour, and very
graceful. They turned their small heads at the noise we made, and
perceiving us, switching their long tails with a loud sound, cantered
away before us. I could easily have brought one of them down, I
fancied, but I had no wish to merit the appellation of the destroyer,
and we continued our course as before. It was some time, however,
before we lost sight of them.

I cannot describe the variety of animals we met with in our progress.
Many of them I had not seen before, but had no difficulty in recognising
them from the descriptions I had read of African wild beasts. We were
beginning to look out for a spot on which to camp for the night, when
before us appeared a grove of wide topped mimosa-trees. If water was to
be found near at hand we agreed that this would just suit us. We were
approaching the place when up started a huge white she-rhinoceros with
her calf. I got my rifle ready, expecting that she would attack us; but
after looking at us a minute, she and the calf turned aside, and away
they went, greatly to our satisfaction. I had never seen a more hideous
monster. She was inferior only to an elephant in size, and had two
horns, one before the other, on the top of her long head; the hinder
horn was not more than half a foot long, while the front horn, which
inclined forward, was nearly four feet in length. She carried her
strange, wrinkled head low down to the ground. In spite of her ugliness
she seemed to be a very inoffensive creature.

There are four varieties of the rhinoceros--two white and two black.
The black are smaller, and by far the fiercer of the two. They will
turn round and charge their pursuers, ploughing up the ground with their
horns. They are subject to paroxysms of rage, when they will attack a
bush or a tree, and with loud snorts and blowing they will plough up the
ground round it, and charge it till they have broken it in pieces. Is
not this the animal referred to by Job when he says, "Canst thou bind
the unicorn with his hand in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys
after thee? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt
thou leave thy labour to him? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring
home thy seed, and gather