■I?;;- with greater convenience, I endeavoured to lay -it¡on its back. This, however, proceeded in-a-great meafure from the lazinefs o f -my Hottentots, and their back-wardnefs -to affift me. In the pofition, therefore, in which this unwieldy creature lay, we cut up its left fide, and took a vlarge flip from Off its thick hide. This could not be effeAed . without a .great deal of trouble, and repeatedly whetting our knives afrefh. Though the animal had lain above twenty-four -hours, and an eechymofis was formed about the wound; yet the flefh had hitherto been preferved from putrefaAion by the thic-knefs of the hide. A piece of this flefh we broiled • immediately, which tailed a good deal like pork, but in my opinion was much coarfer. In the mean while, we -cut through the ribs with an axe, and what with hacking and tearing together, we at laft contrived to empty ¡the cavity of •the abdomen. I made drawings and defcriptions of thefe -parts, and took the dimenfions o f them as fpeedily as pofli- b le ; after which we took out the diaphragm, and a naked ¡Hottentot crept into the carcafe, tin order to take out the Jungs and heart. As the animal had received ¡its death-wound by a ihot in >the large blood-.vseflels o f The lungs, thefe parts were already afteAed with fome degree of putridity. The lungs, diver and milt had not been long expofed to the open air, before they began to fwell and effervefce. The violent heat o f the fun at noon, the great drought, and the flench of the carcafe, rendered this operation in a ihort time extremely dangerous as well as difgufiing. In the mean while, I made the following obfervations. The The vifoera o f the rhinoceros bicornis, in my opinion, De‘^sb‘w- moil referable thofe of a horfe. So that this animal, not- withftanding its being furniihed with horns, by no. means belongs to the ruminating tribe, but rather to the clafs of thofe whofe fat is of a foft nature like lard, and not hard like tallow. The itomach does not hear the lfeaft refemblAnee to that' of a horfe, but rather to that o f a man or a hog. It waft four feet in length; (as I? have lately found in my notes,, fince I gave the defeription of this animal in the Swedifh TranfaAions) and two feet in diameter-; and to this viicus was annexed an inteflinal tube of twenty-eight feet longh and fix inches-in diameter. This inteflinal canal: was. terminated three feet" and a half from the bottom by a large ceeeum, i f I' may fb call a vifcus, which at - its upper rend was the fame width-as the flomach, viz. two feet, and above.' twice the length; that is eight feet and a half; lying on. the fpine o f the hack, and attached to it at- both ends,, after.- which it is contraAed. into a reAum fix inches in width,.• and a foot and a half in length. The kidnies were a foot and a' half in diameter; and- the milt fcarcely a foot broad, but full four feet long. • T h e heart was a foot and a half in length, and the breadth: not much lefs-. The right lobe of the lungs had an incifiandixit»., but was in. other-refpeAs undivided, and entire, •• being: tsvav feet in length. The left was fubdivided into- two ldhfes* the fmaller of-which was next the bafe o f the heart*- T h e liver, when meafured from right to left, - was found! to. be: three feet and a half in breadth but1® depth, or. moeafiirihg from above downwards,1 as it hangs in- the- animal when1 this :
27f 72-2
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