1775- As I have mentioned above that the rhinoceros may be killed by a lingle ihot, it follows that the hide of this animal is not fo impenetrable as has been fuppoied. B o n - t i u s has long ago remarked, that this beaft is ufually killed with powder and ball. M . d e B u f f o n probably did not pay attention to this paffages, when he afferted, on the authority of G E R v a i s e , that its hide canndt be penetrated by any ball, excepting only about the ears. To thefe, however, M . d e B u f f o n feems, of his own free will, to have added the eyes and the belly. It is true, indeed, that leaden balls will fooner be flattened againit the ikin than pierce i t ; but that balls or cylinders made of iron (des lingots de fer) ihould not be able to make the leaft im- preflion on it, feems to be another addition o f M . h e B u f - t o n ’s, equally abfurd with the former. It frequently becomes neceffary for me to corredt in this manner, the voluminous works of this illuftrious author; which, indeed, merit this corredtion fo much the more, as the errors in them, being in other refpedts not uhfrequently dreffed up in an elegant ftyle,ihave, in fadt, impofed on many With charms which ought to-be the attendants on pure genuine truth only, and unadulterated nature. -It is therefore probable, that the fportive genius of M. d e B u f f o n , muft at times have operated in impoling lifcewife on its owners but -Itafn willing to hope, that this gentleman being by profeffion the interpreter of nature and truth, will on this account fee with the greater pleafure, any ftridlures and remarks which are neceffary to prcfervethefcience of nature from falfehood and error. For For this reafon I fhall proceed, without any farther cere- many, to inform the reader, that the hide of the rhinoceros, as well as that of the elephant, is capable of being pene- -trated by javelins and darts. I ordered one of my Hottentots to make a trial of this with his haflagai, on one of the dead rhinocorofes. Though his weapon was far from being in good order, and had no other iharpnefs than that it had received from the forge, yet, by means o f a certain manoeuvre, it -received fuch an impulfive force, as at the diftance o f five or fix paces, to pierce through the thick hide of the animal .half a foot deep into his body. The Hottentot or Caffre hunters are accuftomed to ileal .both upon the elephant and the rhinoceros while they are afleep, and.give them feveral wounds at onc.e. After this they follow the traces o f the animal for one or more days» till it drops down with weikneisror dies of its wounds. Generally, however, according:to their own account,-they poifon one or two of their darts immediately, .before they attack an animal of-this fize,; in which cafe, they have no occafion to wait fo many days, as they otherwife would, before their prey falls into their hands. A farmer told me, he had feen an elephant; in this manner wounded and dead within twenty-four hours . As to/Whatsregardsthe one-rhorned rhinoceros, M. ;de B u f - î f o n , jin Tom. XI. tehanges his opinion three times in the fpaceof a few. pages. In page x y y , without quoting his authority for it, M. d k B u f f o n confiders the hide as being ib tough, as not to: be penetrable/either by the fire-arms or fide- arms o f the hunter, (ni du fer ni du feu du chajfev.rl) In page 18a again in the notes he quotes, approves and much commends the. account given by M. Mours relative to this point, which
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