1776- January. I have had oceafion to mention before at page 35 1 , Vol. I. is my only informer on this fubjedt. The Snefe-Hottentots told him, that by this iketch they meant to reprefent an animal, which, in point of refemblance, came neareft to the horfes on which he and his train rode, but which at the fame time had a horn in its forehead. To this they added, that thefe creatures were rare, extremely fwifo o f foot, furious and dangerous; fo that, when they went out after them they did not dare to attack them at clofe quarters, nor appear before them on the open plains, but were obliged to clamber up fome high clift or rock, and there make a clattering noife; by which means they knew that the beaft, being o f a curious difpofition, would be enticed towards the fpot, when they might, without danger, deftroy it by means of their poifoned arrows. It fhould feem, that a rude and barbarous people like the Chinefe- Hottentots, could not eafdy invent, and, by the mere force o f imagination, reprefent to themfelves fuch beings, and at the fame time fo circumftantially relate the manner in Which they hunted them. Still lefs credible is it, that thefe favages fhould have been able to preferve any remembrance o f the records and traditions o f former times concerning this animal. Neither is it any wonder, that a iketch o f the unicorn fhould be feenhere only at one place. For, generally fpeaking, a man fees little or nothing in palling through this country, which is only reforted to for the purpofe o f hunting elephants. Now I have happened to touch upon the fubjedt o f the elephant, it is worth while to remark, that even this, the largeft o f all animals on the face o f the globe, which is fo common and fo much fought after after ih Africa, and fo frequently tamed, and at the fame time fo much ufed, and confequently fo well known in Afia, has been hitherto, as it were, unknown, and the fubjedt o f much difpute with refpedt to an effential point, I mean the manner o f its copulation, as I have related above at page 326, Vol. I. It is therefore not fo much to be wondered at, that we fhould know nothing o f an animal lefs in bulk, and much lefs common. And though I fhould objedt to the teftimony given me by my informer, as well as to that of the Chinefe-Hottentots, in regard to the unicorn, yet the exifterice o f it fhould not on that account be looked upon as a fable, notwithftanding it is not known to thefe more modern times. It is but a few years fince the Camelopardalis, the talleft of all quadrupeds, when meafured at the fore part, has been made frefh mention o f by naturaliits ; this too has been the cafe with the g n u . A reprefentation o f this remarkable animal, the Camelopardalisy feems likewife to have been given us by the antients ; but who, till thefe our times, ever confidered k in any other light than that o f a fidtion, a monfter, or, at leaft, a monftrous medley, exifting only in the imagination ? When we confider, moreover, that the hippopotamus, which in all probability is a larger animal, though fomewhat lower than the elephant, has been hitherto very little known ; as likewife that, till the prefent moment, we have been almoft utter ftrangers even to the rhinoceros hicornis, may we not ex- pedt'that there will be a time, when the unicorn and all other beafts and infedts, animated by the Creator of all things, but unknown to us at prefent, will be brought out of their holes and hiding-places into the light f Thé following extradt of a let- 17 76. January. »•Mill Till ||j| i l l i i II ili lifR I
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