Andrew Smith
Published: 2017-11-24
Total Pages: 72
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Excerpt from Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa: Consisting Chiefly of Figures and Descriptions of the Objects of Natural History Collected During an Expedition Into the Interior of South Africa, in the Years 1834, 1835, and 1836 While in the neighbourhood of the Tropic, we heard of two other species of the genus, which exist still farther to the northward but, unfortunately, could not obtain any very circumstantial evidence concerning them, as the persons who had seen them were only on a visit in the country they inhabit. One of them was stated to approximate the Keitloa; the other was de scribed as very different to any species previously seen by them, and to have only one long horn towards the forehead. Now, though descriptions of objects furnished by such persons are often inaccurate, from the circumstance of their not having been favourably situated for making correct observations, as well as from a deficiency of language calculated to convey the informa tion they actually possess, I have always remarked that even a hasty examination seemed to supply the savage with more accurate notions of the general characters of animals than it did the civilized man, and therefore I do not despair of species such as they mentioned being yet discovered. It is in regard to the species with the single horn, that we experience the greatest hesitation in receiving their evidence as credible, and, therefore, it is agreeable to have it corroborated by the testimony of a man from a very different part of the country, as obtained and published by a missionary of great research who resided a long time in Madagascar. The individual who furnished Mr. Freeman with the account of the Ndzoo-dzoo, was a native of the country northward of Mozambique, and if we admit certain portions of the descriptions to be tainted with errors, we can recognise in the remainder the genuine habits of a Rhinoceros, and probably one of the species, with which our informants were slightly acquainted. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
