A RHINOCEROS. HUNT 167

It was of no use: the pace was too severe, and
although running wonderfully, he was obliged to give
way to the horses. Only three now followed the
rhinoceros—Taher Sheriff, his brother Roder, and
myself. I had been obliged to give the second place
to Roder, as he was a mere monkey in weight, but I
was a close third. The excitement was intense. We
neared the jungle, and the rhinoceros began to show
signs of flagging, as the dirt puffed up before their
nostrils, and with noses close to the ground, they
snorted, as they still. galloped on. Oh for a fresh
horse! We were within two hundred yards of the
jungle, but the horses were all done. Roder pushed
ahead. We were close upon the dense thorns, and the
rhinoceros broke into a trot ; they weredone! Away
he went; he was close to the very heels of the beasts,
but his horse could do no more than his present pace.
Still he gained upon the nearest ; he leaned forward
with his sword raised for the blow—another moment
and the jungle would be reached! One effort more,
and the sword flashed in the sunshine as the rearmost
rhinoceros disappeared in the thick screen of thorns
with a gash about a foot long upon his hind-quarters !’

The fourth sub-order of the ungulates is that
containing the hyraces, and known in consequence
as the Hyracoidea. These are allied in structure to
both the rhinoceros and the elephant, but in size are
not much larger than a rabbit. There are over a
dozen species of them, some living among rocks,
most of them in trees, nearly all of them African,
ranging down to Cape Colony, one of them being
found in Arabia and Syria. Their feet are very